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Rating: 
Summary: What a Great Resource!
Review: As a self-confessed political junkie and political science/history major, I cannot be without this book. This book gives great information on each member of Congress and all 50 governors. There is also a wealth of statistics in this book from voting stats to demographic information that is incredibly useful. Since the last edition of this book, the editors have added many new features to this almanac, such as prior winning percentages for long-serving members of Congress and a more in-depth break down of a state/district's demographic information. For those who love politics as much as I do, this book is truly indispensable, especially in an election year.
Rating:
Summary: What a Great Resource!
Review: As a self-confessed political junkie and political science/history major, I cannot be without this book. This book gives great information on each member of Congress and all 50 governors. There is also a wealth of statistics in this book from voting stats to demographic information that is incredibly useful. Since the last edition of this book, the editors have added many new features to this almanac, such as prior winning percentages for long-serving members of Congress and a more in-depth break down of a state/district's demographic information. For those who love politics as much as I do, this book is truly indispensable, especially in an election year.
Rating: 
Summary: Biased, but worthy
Review: As he's done for the past 30 years, Mr Barone & company give us a decent snapshot of each district, member of Congress and Governor. His conservative bias shines through, but he still does a fairly good job. Congressional Quarterly's equivalent does a better job of describing each district and seems unbiased, yet the Almanacs of American Politics are a bit less dry.
It's a good reference point for C-SPAN junkies or anyone else interested in the workings of our government.
Rating:
Summary: Biased, but worthy
Review: As he's done for the past 30 years, Mr Barone & company give us a decent snapshot of each district, member of Congress and Governor. His conservative bias shines through, but he still does a fairly good job. Congressional Quarterly's equivalent does a better job of describing each district and seems unbiased, yet the Almanacs of American Politics are a bit less dry.
It's a good reference point for C-SPAN junkies or anyone else interested in the workings of our government.
Rating:
Summary: The book that brought us Newt Gingrich
Review: Before The Almanac of American Politics came along in the late 1960's, Congress was widely seen as either an impenetrable series of arcane rules, procedures, rituals, and conflicts which only experts could understand in detail--the prevailing view of political scientists--or a bunch of oddball characters who occasionally hindered or unjustly attracted attention from the great men serving as President--the prevailing view of journalists.
The Alamanac of American Politics created a new and more accurate paradigm. The workings of Congress, it said, were comprehensible to informed and intelligent people. The personalities of Members of Congress, while occasionally idiosyncratic, were generally integrated with the purposeful actions members of Congress were taking on behalf of their geographical constituencies, their supporters, and their visions of local and national interests.
In short, Members of Congress were rational actors acting within both a geographic and national context. Tip O'Neill's famous saying--"All politics are local"--was only partly true. All politics was also national. Citizens with national goals only had to find citizens with local sensitivites who shared their national goals to oppose incumbent Members of Congress.
Congress is a far more competitive and short-tenured organization than it was before this series was written.
Without The Almanac of American Politics, there would have been far fewer anti-war and pro-enviroment challenges in the early 1970's. The Democratic gains of 1974 and 1976 would have been far less sweeping. So would the Republican gains of 1980, 1994, and 2002. Had this series never been written, you never would have heard of Newt Gingrich.
The compilation of information can be a profoundly political act. If you are at all interested in politics, you should read this book. You should not read it as a compilation of interesting trivia. You should read it knowing that people who count see it a guide to action.
Rating: 
Summary: With proper writing, could have been a classic
Review: This book would deserve a higher rating except for the fact that what makes it most appealing - the in-depth essays about states and districts and their elected officials - is shot through with the bias of Mr. Barone.At first I thought it was an interestingly unique take on events, but I soon noticed that it was largely skewed toward praising Republican tax-cutters and making backhanded compliments (or outright mistatements) about Democrats. For example, in the introduction (under a subheading labelled "taxes") , he says "most Democrats oppose the tax cut not because of its fiscal effect - who knows what the fiscal situation will be in 2010? - but because as one Democrat put it, 'I want the government to have the money'." He very kindly adds "this is a principled position" in the next sentence to make him look fair, noting in backhand complimentary fashion how Democrats want "large government." But finding some Democrat who will repeat what you want him to say is not real reporting. Most Democrats would say they opposed the tax cuts because 1. the economy was tanking, 2. we were at war and needed the money, and 3. they were going to rich people, not the middle class. As for "larger government," Democrats simply take seriously Thomas Jefferson's words "To secure these rights governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." We Democrats want government to make sure some company doesn't dump lead in our water, or some state doesn't beat up minorities, or whatever else needs protecting. But forget getting Barone to understand that. Just goes to show, you shouldn't ask someone's enemy to explain their position to you. This flaw runs through the whole book. He lovingly details all of Bush's qualities (how his "simple outlook" cuts through the "complicated issues"), and every state is described as either being safely Republican or potentially Republican. Never mind that Democrats could win only their base states (Northeast and West) and still be within 20 electors of winning; Republicans must win at least two of the big swing states (Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida) to even have a chance. (In fact, if I were John Kerry, I'd camp out there because without them, the GOP has to run the table on the smaller swing states). Cutting taxes are endlessly mentioned (when will Republicans get over this issue), Republican candidates are decribed as winning due to their sage policy proposals; Democrats win because of trial lawyers and unions (how simplistic). Barone goes on endlessly about how great Tom Davis (VA), and gives barely a page to others. My favorite loaded phrase is when he mentions Elian and "the violent seizure of the 6-year-old boy by armed agents of the Clinton administration." Real objective writing, there. Of course, the fact that more Floridians tried to vote for Gore (which would have been seen and conceded by a more honorable man than George Bush, who has had things handed to him all his life and saw no reason to stop in 2000) is skipped over. Imagine - Democrats being mad an election was stolen! How partisan... Until the editors get a fair writer, this book will remain a shadow of what it could be.
Rating:
Summary: All the information you need in one place
Review: This is the first time that I've purchased this series of almanacs by Michael Barone. After surveying the book for awhile (obviously it'd be impractical to just sit down and read it through), the information you get isn't really "exclusive" or "hard to find." This almanac isn't for someone looking for that sort of information - everything in this book can be easily accessed through various websites. So what earns this book a 5/5? Well, it puts all sorts of information in one place. Racial demographics of congressional districts, bios of legislators, and financial information are all available in this book, and easily found since Barone organizes all information by state. An index is provided if you're unsure of what CD a particular Congressman might be in. Purchasing this book also gives you access to the Almanac's website, which gives you electronic versions of the last few editions of the almanac as well as the current one. What would be nice is if National Journal offered this online access at a lower price in lieu of purchasing the book... but overall, it's a must have for anyone that follows politics.
Rating:
Summary: All the information you need in one place
Review: This is the first time that I've purchased this series of almanacs by Michael Barone. After surveying the book for awhile (obviously it'd be impractical to just sit down and read it through), the information you get isn't really "exclusive" or "hard to find." This almanac isn't for someone looking for that sort of information - everything in this book can be easily accessed through various websites. So what earns this book a 5/5? Well, it puts all sorts of information in one place. Racial demographics of congressional districts, bios of legislators, and financial information are all available in this book, and easily found since Barone organizes all information by state. An index is provided if you're unsure of what CD a particular Congressman might be in. Purchasing this book also gives you access to the Almanac's website, which gives you electronic versions of the last few editions of the almanac as well as the current one. What would be nice is if National Journal offered this online access at a lower price in lieu of purchasing the book... but overall, it's a must have for anyone that follows politics.
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