Washoe County Library System

Documents the violence that sometimes marked legislative sessions in the decades before the American Civil War, detailing acts of physical fighting, duels, and mortal threats over disagreements about key issues, particularly slavery.

"In this elegant, penetrating and moving portrait of the United States Congress, filmmaker Ken Burns profiles an American institution whose ideals and actions affect us all. Narrated by David McCullough, the program employs historic film footage and interviews with insiders" including David Broker, Alistair Cooke and Cokie Roberts to detail the personalities, events and issues that have animated Congress' first 200 years."--Publisher's website.

This brilliantly argued new perspective on the Civil War overturns the popular conception that Abraham Lincoln single-handedly led the Union to victory and gives us a vivid account of the essential role Congress played in winning the warBuilding a riveting narrative around four influential members of Congress--Thaddeus Stevens, Pitt Fessenden, Ben Wade, and the pro-slavery Clement Vallandigham--Fergus Bordewich shows us how a newly empowered Republican...

For the first 128 years of our countrys history, not a single woman served in the Senate or House of Representatives. All of that changed, however, in November 1916, when Jeannette Rankin of Montana became the first woman elected to Congress, even before the Nineteenth Amendment gave women across the United States the right to vote. Beginning with the womens suffrage movement and going all the way through the results of the 2012 election, Ilene Cooper...