The U.S. Senate

With an avalanche of scholarship on the House it can be tough to balance out coverage in a typical Congress course with appropriate readings on the slow institution.</p><p></p><p>Offering top-notch research geared to an undergraduate audience Loomis' new edited volume represents a broad picture of the contemporary Senate and how it came to be. While addressing issues of delay obstruction and polarization in a variety of ways the scholars in this collection are not proposing a reform agenda but instead explore the historical and political contexts for how difficult it can be to change a non-majoritarian highly individualistic institution. Students will come away from these chapters with a much greater appreciation of the Senate's unique combination of tradition precedent and constitutional mandate.