Politics in America

I have received the latest volume of this excellent book published by CQ Roll Call. This covers the 113th Congress and includes biographical details of every member of Congress and details of election results. I have been buying Politics in America since the 2002 version (107th Congress) and used both my own copies and earlier volumes whilst in Washington for background research on the individuals who had been (or are) whips.

It is available in the UK through Amazon (your purchase through this website will cost you the same, but contribute to "Washminster") - or from CQ Roll Call in the USA.



I also buy National Journal's "Almanac of American Politics". That is not yet available, but can be ordered at

 

(My order is already in).

A Journal kept for 500 years!

This month marks the anniversary of the House of Lords Journal. The very first entry is dated 21st January 1510. Until the end of March that first journal is on display in the Royal Gallery. My wife and I went to see it yesterday. This, and all subsequent journals are held by the Parliamentary Archives.

According to the Parliamentary website - "The Journal is the legal record of the proceedings of Parliament. Both the House of Lords and the House of Commons produce a Journal for each session. It is not a word for word record of everything spoken, but is a description of all the decisions taken. In the House of Commons, the Votes and Proceedings are consolidated into the Journals on a sessional basis and these form the authoritative record of the decisions of the House. In the House of Lords, the Journals are compiled from the Minutes of Proceedings by the Clerk of the Journals office ."

The Lords Journal for 2007-2008 can be read here.

The Almanac of American Politics

The main rival to CQ's Politics in America is National Journal's "Almanac of American Politics". I find them complementary. The 2010 edition is due to be published this month. The Washington Post Review has commented in the past "Indispensable . . . this compendium of statistics and information has gone as far as humanly possible."

I have bought and use both. I'm sure that as soon as copies arrive in the UK I will be ordering the Almanac