CQ Press Landmark Legislation 1774-2012: Major U.S. Acts and Treaties

Product Description The Second Edition of this renowned treasure trove of information about the most important laws and treaties enacted by the U.S. Congress now deepens its historical coverage and examines an entire decade of new legislation. Landmark Legislation 1774-2012 includes additional acts and treaties chosen for their historical significance or their precedential importance for later areas of major federal legislative activity in the over 200 years since the convocation of the Continental Congress. Brand new chapters expand coverage to include the last five numbered Congresses (10 years of activity from 2003-2012), which has seen landmark legislation in the areas of health insurance and health care reform; financial regulatory reform; fiscal stimulus and the Temporary Asset Relief Program; federal support for stem cell research; reform of federal financial support for public schools and higher education; and much more. Features & Benefits: Each chapter covers one of the numbered Congresses with a historical essay, followed by the major acts of that Congress arranged in chronological order of passage – with each act summarized. A Finder’s Guide summarizes all of the acts and treaties into approximately 40 separate topical policy areas. The work’s extensive bibliography has been expanded and updated. This one-volume resource is a must-have for any public or academic library, especially those with strong American history or political science collections. Review In just a single volume, Landmark Legislation effectively covers hundreds of the most significant pieces of legislation and treaties in US history, beginning with the Continental Congress in 1774 and concluding with the first Obama Administration in 2012.  Some of the legislation has had a far-reaching impact, such as the 14th Amendment; other legislation was significantly more important at the time of passage, such as the Greek-Turkish Aid Act of 1947. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through graduate students; general readers. -- C. A. Collins ― CHOICE Published On: 2015-01-01 About the Author Stephen W. Stathis was, for nearly four decades, a specialist in American National Government for the Congressional Research Service (CRS) of the Library of Congress. Stathis, who specializes in the history of Congress, held both research and managerial positions at CRS. He is the author of the first edition of Landmark Legislation (2003) and Landmark Debates in Congress: From the Declaration of Independence to the War in Iraq (2009).