CONGRESS AND THE NATION,

1945-1964. A Review of Government and Politics in the Postwar Years. Edited byThomas N. Schroth '43 and the staff ofthe Congressional Quarterly Service.Washington, D. C.: Congressional Quarterly, Inc. $27.50.

Thomas N. Schroth '43 is executive editor of the Congressional Quarterly Service and was the guiding hand in the publication of Congress and the Nation, a mammoth volume that compresses the legislation and politics of almost twenty years into over two thousand pages of history, analysis, and statistics. It is an invaluable work, a firstrate companion to the regular CQ reports that have come to be relied upon by writers and scholars as the single most important source of information on the activities of the U. S. Congress.

In his introduction, Schroth notes that "Congress, with all its fits and starts, all its cumbersome and vexing ways, all its shortcomings in style and operation, displayed incredible energy and perseverence in disposing of the American people's business." During the two decades that Congress and the Nation reviews, the Executive Branch has accumulated a huge storehouse of power. For some, this trend has been the inevitable consequence of the increasing complexity of modern problems of public policy and the increasing reliance on the federal government. For others, it has been a reflection of a universal pattern of executive authority, no less obvious in other advanced industrial nations. For still others, it has been a weakening - if not a betrayal - of the concept of the separation of powers and thus of the American democratic process.

In examining the history of the postwar years through the focus on Congressional activity, Congress and the Nation affirms the continued vitality of the legislative process. Certainly there have been changes in executive-legislative relations and certainly there has been an increase in presidential power. But the "separation of powers" was never a static concept that placed the two branches in isolated boxes. In its chapters on Foreign Policy, National Security Policy, Economic Policy, Labor, Agriculture, Natural Resources and Power, and Health, Education and Welfare, Congress and the Nation demonstrates the essentially political and continuous process through which public policies evolve and through which the President and Congress share responsibility as much as they contend for power.

The enormous store of data in Congressand the Nation serves as a supplement to

the over-view of legislative activities in each of the major areas of public policy the book covers. In a separate section are found a biographical index to members of Congress from 1945 to 1965, a listing of congressional leaders and committee chairmen, the key votes of major bills, the names of members of the Cabinet, short descriptions of controversial nominations and major Supreme Court cases, a chronology of major events, and a step-by-step description of how a bill is passed. The result is a model of organization, a priceless tool for students and teachers, and powerful testimony to the viability of representative government.

Orvil E. Dryfoos Professorof Public A ffairs