Vital Statistics on Congress 2008

The Brookings Institution first brought out Vital Statistics on Congress in 1980, and it now appears anew after each biennial election; the present volume of course reflects that of 2006 rather than the 2008, one which had yet to take place when it went to press.

After an introduction discussing the political and organisational trends in Congress since 1945, the book is devoted to a collection of tables, with some graphs, enumerating particular aspects of both houses of Congress. The figures are always brought up to as near the present date as possible, but for an unexplained reason, the starting...