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Publications
July 1, 2017
The Rise of the Representative: Lawmakers and Constituents in Colonial America
Representation is integral to the study of legislatures, yet virtually no attention has been given to how representative assemblies developed and what that process might tell us about how the relationship between the representative and the represented evolved. The Rise of the Representative corrects that omission by tracing the development of representative assemblies in colonial […]
July 1, 2017
Gateway to Equality: Black Women and the Struggle for Economic Justice in St. Louis
Like most of the nation during the 1930s, St. Louis, Missouri, was caught in the stifling grip of the Great Depression. For the next thirty years, the “Gateway City” continued to experience a significant urban decline as its population swelled and the area’s industries stagnated. Over these decades, many African American citizens in the region […]
March 1, 2017
Electing the House: The Adoption and Performance of the U.S. Single-Member District Electoral System
Electing the House is the first book-length study to explore how the US came to adopt the single-member district system, how it solidified into a seemingly permanent fixture of American government, and whether it performs well by the standards it was intended to achieve. Dow traces the history of the present system from its origins […]
February 1, 2017
A Guide to the Missouri Constitution
Through a combination of expert historical and contextual commentary and a concise apparatus that deploys diagrams and tables to summarize key concepts, Dyer and Casey have crafted the most efficient and engaging text for understanding the structure of Missouri’s government, the provisions and politics of its lengthy constitution, and the relevance that this document has […]
December 1, 2016
JFK and the Masculine Mystique: Sex and Power on the New Frontier
From very early on in his career, John F. Kennedy’s allure was more akin to a movie star than a presidential candidate. Why were Americans so attracted to Kennedy in the late 1950s and early 1960s—his glamorous image, good looks, cool style, tough-minded rhetoric, and sex appeal? As Steve Watts argues, JFK was tailor-made for […]
September 1, 2016
C.S. Lewis on Politics and the Natural Law
Co-authored with Micah J. Watson, Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center for Politics & Religion at Union University, C.S. Lewis on Politics and the Natural Law debunks the commonly held assumption that Lewis was uninterested in politics and public affairs by exploring “the contours of Lewis’ multi-faceted Christian engagement with political philosophy […]