Last Great Senate - by Ira Shapiro (Paperback)

About the Book

The Last Great Senate is a narrative history of the Senate from 1977 through 1980, the closing years of the progressive Senate of the 1960s and 1970s which compiled a record of accomplishment unmatched in the country's history. The book recounts legislative battles which pres...

Book Synopsis

The Last Great Senate is a narrative history of the Senate from 1977 through 1980, the closing years of the progressive Senate of the 1960s and 1970s which compiled a record of accomplishment unmatched in the country's history. The book recounts legislative battles which present remarkable case studies of the lawmaking process in action.

Review Quotes

"At the center of some of the most important and interesting debates in our lifetimes, Ira Shapiro worked for, and with, many members of the Senate who will be considered giants long after we are all gone. Now, in The Last Great Senate, he writes with liveliness, an insider's insight, and affection for the senators and Senate of the late 1970s. This is great history, and a great reminder that the problems we now have with the Senate are less about its rules and more about its people and our contemporary political culture."

"By reminding us of what the U.S. Senate was, Ira Shapiro awakens us to what this increasingly shaky pillar of American democracy still could be. In so doing, he gives us not only a riveting historical account, but also a prescription of how to restore health to our political system and true patriotism to public debate."

"If today's voters want a sure-handed explanation of how the once-consequential debate in the U.S. Senate degenerated into a low-comedy revue, Shapiro's book offers it - powerfully."

"Ira Shapiro has produced a historically and politically artistic work of great brilliance - a masterfully researched and smoothly integrated brief that categorically proves his hypothesis. If I had but one book to recommend to newly elected senators - and their aides - this would be the one."

"The Last Great Senate deftly captures a four year period of the Senate's history during which it could (generally) be relied upon to act diligently and with honor. With superior insight and analysis based on his years inside the system and his love of the institution, Ira Shapiro provides an ideal lens through which to view the current political stagnation in Washington, and ultimately to give us some hope that there could be another great Senate."

"There couldn't be a better time to reissue Ira Shapiro's insightful and challenging book, The Last Great Senate. If every senator and Hill staffer could read and absorb the lessons of this perceptive work -- following as it does in the rich tradition of such classics as Harry McPherson's A Political Education and Robert Caro's The Master of the Senate -- it would go a long way toward breaking the gridlock in Washington. It's an important book, and I highly recommend it."

"With his gift for lively narrative and vivid character study, Ira Shapiro brings to life a forgotten, unappreciated, and surprisingly productive period of modern political history, when the Senate rose above partisanship to serve as a 'national mediator' for the great issues of the day. The Last Great Senate is bound to become a classic among books on Congress and American politics."

About the Author

Ira Shapiro has worked in senior positions in the U.S. Senate and served as a leading U.S. trade negotiator, ultimately earning the rank of ambassador. He resides in Potomac, Maryland.