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57 books match the query 'United States. Congress. House' and 5 start with a

cover of A Carpetbagger in Reverse: Arthur W. Mitchell, America's First Black Democratic Congressman

A Carpetbagger in Reverse

Arthur W. Mitchell, America's First Black Democratic Congressman

John Morris Knapp

University of Alabama Press, 2025

From Alabama to Congress—Arthur W. Mitchell’s fight for justice rewrote the rules of Black political power.

A Carpetbagger in Reverse offers a landmark reassessment of the life, career, and accomplishments of groundbreaking Congressman Arthur W. Mitchell, the first Black Democrat elected to Congress and the only Black member of Congress during his four terms of service from 1935 to 1943.

Born to former enslaved people in Alabama in 1883, Mitchell studied with Booker T. Washington at Tuskegee Institute and later moved to Washington DC and became a lawyer. He continued his career in Chicago, where the Great Migration had helped transform the city’s South Side into a vibrant, multiracial enclave.

As a congressman, Mitchell helped to create an enduring alliance between Black Americans and the Democratic party. Seeing his primary role as representing the South’s disempowered Black population, his belief that solutions to the region’s racial problems should arise from a new cadre of locally trained leaders brought him into frequent, vituperative conflict with the NAACP, the Republican Party, and the Black press. The first Black lawyer to argue successfully before the Supreme Court, his unanimous victory in Mitchell v. United States would have long-term consequences for the Civil Rights Movement.

A Carpetbagger in Reverse is the first publication significantly based on Mitchell’s papers, an essential and often overlooked source of insights about the development of Black political and culture life in the 1930s and 1940s.

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cover of A Pryor Commitment

A Pryor Commitment

David Pryor

Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, 2009

David Pryor’s career of public service is unparalleled in Arkansas history: he has been elected state representative, congressman, governor, and, alongside Dale Bumpers, U.S. senator (1979–1997). Through it all, Pryor’s curiosity, compassion, and concern for ordinary Americans draw the reader from one colorful vignette to another.
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cover of A Woman's Place Is in the House: Campaigning for Congress in the Feminist Era

A Woman's Place Is in the House

Campaigning for Congress in the Feminist Era

Barbara Burrell

University of Michigan Press, 1994

In this first comprehensive examination of women candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives, Barbara Burrell argues that women are as successful at winning elections as men. Why, then, are there still so few women members of Congress? Compared to other democratically elected national parliaments, the U.S. Congress ranks very low in its proportion of women members. During the past decade, even though more and more women have participated in state and local governments, they have not made the same gains at the national level.
 
A Woman's Place Is in the House examines the experiences of the women who have run for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1968 through 1992 and compares their presence and performance with that of male candidates. The longitudinal study examines both general and primary elections and refutes many myths associated with women candidates including their ability to raise money and garner support from both interest groups and political parties.
 
According to Burrell, election year 1992 was correctly dubbed the "Year of the Woman" in American politics--not so much because women overcame perceived barriers to being elected but because for the first time a significant number of women chose to run in primaries. Burrell's study examines the effects women are having on the congressional agenda and offers insight on how such issues as term limitations and campaign finance reform will impact on the election of women to Congress.
 
Barbara Burrell (Ph.D. University of Michigan) is professor and director of graduate studies in the Political Science Department at Northern Illinois University where she teaches courses in public opinion, political behavior and women and politics.

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cover of Achieve the Honorable: A Missouri Congressman's Journey from Warm Springs to Washington

Achieve the Honorable

A Missouri Congressman's Journey from Warm Springs to Washington

Ike Skelton

Southern Illinois University Press, 2013

Growing up during the Great Depression and World War II, Ike Skelton dreamed of joining the military. That dream was shattered when he contracted one of the most dreaded diseases of the era: polio. Far from abandoning hope, Skelton, after treatment at Warm Springs, Georgia, overcame his disability and went on to become a college athlete, a celebrated lawyer, a Missouri state senator, and a U.S. Congressman. Achieve the Honorable is the deeply personal tale of Ike Skelton’s determined journey from the small town of Lexington, Missouri, to Capitol Hill.

During his years in the U.S. House of Representatives, Skelton became known as a bipartisan negotiator and a champion of the Armed Services. Throughout the decades, he helped steer the nation through its most dangerous challenges, from Communism to terrorism; took a leading role in the reform of the Department of Defense; dedicated himself to fulfilling the interests of his constituents; and eventually rose to become chair of the House Armed Services Committee during such pivotal events as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In addition to detailing Skelton’s political career and its accompanying challenges and triumphs, Achieve the Honorable provides inside glimpses into the lives of political titans like Harry Truman, Richard Nixon, and Bill Clinton. Along the way, we are treated to Skelton’s engaging humor and shrewd insight into twentieth- and twenty-first-century U.S. politics. 

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cover of Ambition, Competition, and Electoral Reform: The Politics of Congressional Elections Across Time

Ambition, Competition, and Electoral Reform

The Politics of Congressional Elections Across Time

Jamie L. Carson and Jason M. Roberts

University of Michigan Press, 2013

In Ambition, Competition, and Electoral Reform, Jamie L. Carson and Jason M. Roberts present an original study of U.S. congressional elections and electoral institutions for 1872-1944 from a contemporary political science perspective. Using data on late nineteenth and early twentieth century congressional elections, the authors test the applicability in a historical context of modern political science theories, assess the effects of institutional reforms, and identify the factors that shape the competitiveness of elections. They present several key findings: the strategic politicians theory is applicable in an era without candidate-centered campaigns; there was an incumbency advantage prior to the full development of candidate-centered campaigns; institutional reforms have had a significant effect on elections; and the degree of electoral competition frequently correlates with elected officials' responsiveness to citizens.

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