The Almanac of American Politics, 2004

Before The Almanac of American Politics came along in the late 1960's, Congress was widely seen as either an impenetrable series of arcane rules, procedures, rituals, and conflicts which only experts could understand in detail--the prevailing view of political scientists--or a bunch of oddball characters who occasionally hindered or unjustly attracted attention from the great men serving as President--the prevailing view of journalists. The Alamanac of American Politics created a new and more accurate paradigm. The workings of Congress, it said, were comprehensible to informed and intelligent people. The personalities of Members of Congress, while occasionally idiosyncratic, were generally integrated with the purposeful actions members of Congress were taking on behalf of their geographical constituencies, their supporters, and their visions of local and national interests. In short, Members of Congress were rational actors acting within both a geographic and national context. Tip O'Neill's famous saying--"All politics are local"--was only partly true. All politics was also national. Citizens with national goals only had to find citizens with local sensitivites who shared their national goals to oppose incumbent Members of Congress. Congress is a far more competitive and short-tenured organization than it was before this series was written. Without The Almanac of American Politics, there would have been far fewer anti-war and pro-enviroment challenges in the early 1970's. The Democratic gains of 1974 and 1976 would have been far less sweeping. So would the Republican gains of 1980, 1994, and 2002. Had this series never been written, you never would have heard of Newt Gingrich. The compilation of information can be a profoundly political act. If you are at all interested in politics, you should read this book. You should not read it as a compilation of interesting trivia. You should read it knowing that people who count see it a guide to action.

This is the first time that I've purchased this series of almanacs by Michael Barone. After surveying the book for awhile (obviously it'd be impractical to just sit down and read it through), the information you get isn't really "exclusive" or "hard to find." This almanac isn't for someone looking for that sort of information - everything in this book can be easily accessed through various websites.So what earns this book a 5/5? Well, it puts all sorts of information in one place. Racial demographics of congressional districts, bios of legislators, and financial information are all available in this book, and easily found since Barone organizes all information by state. An index is provided if you're unsure of what CD a particular Congressman might be in.Purchasing this book also gives you access to the Almanac's website, which gives you electronic versions of the last few editions of the almanac as well as the current one. What would be nice is if National Journal offered this online access at a lower price in lieu of purchasing the book... but overall, it's a must have for anyone that follows politics.