Congress, Presidents, and American Politics: Fifty Years of Writ-ings and Reflections By Lee H. Hamilton

Abstract

Lee Hamilton represented Indiana’s Ninth Congressional District from 1965 to 1999. His fairness, decency, and wisdom earned him widespread respect, consideration for the vice-presidential Democratic nomination, and appointment as vice-chair of the 9/11 Commission, co-chair of the Iraq Study Group, and director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Between 1965 and 2014, he wrote extensively on politics, government, and the work of Congress—first for constituents and then for the public at large. This volume weaves together one hundred of Hamilton’s commentaries with memories of all American presidents from Lyndon B. Johnson to Barack Obama. The resultant work combines memoir, lamentation, and wistful longing from a veteran Washington power broker.