I am pleased to announce the publication of my 13th book, Congressional Lions: Trailblazing Members of Congress and How They Shaped American History (Lexington Books). Copies can be ordered online at the fine establishments listed below.
Hey, I know the book is expensive. It retails for $95.00, although it can be found for $76.00 in some places. Ouch! It’s an academic book, and so it is priced for libraries and other scholarly markets (such as textbooks). The theory is that the publisher will compensate for small sales by jacking up the price. Stephen King sells 500,000 hardback books at $19.95 a pop while I sell 1,000 copies (maybe) of Congressional Lions at $95.00 a copy. The publisher turns a profit however it can.
If you don't want to shell out big bucks to buy the book--and I don't blame you--one option is to recommend the book to your local public library or a university library. Often libraries will acquire books for which there is a demand.
This book is not a beach read. It examines influential members of Congress throughout American history to understand their role in shaping the life of the nation. It seeks to understand how and why certain members of Congress stood out from the crowd and helped shape the nation through public service. In some instances, a member’s leadership style or use of institutional power played a pivotal role in his or her success. In other cases, the historic symbolism of a member’s congressional service was crucial.
Many fine books have been written about the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate as institutions. This book is not designed as a history of congressional traditions, procedures, or institutional operations to compete with those works. Instead of focusing on the origins and customs of the legislative body known as the Congress of the United States, Congressional Lions focuses on the men and women who influenced the House of Representatives and the Senate and, by extension, the nation.