New for Politics

The University Library continues to develop its online collection of reference electronic books ("e-books"). These books are listed in Annie and in various pages in the library's Web site. W&L students and faculty can use them from any location where they can log into to the computing network, whether on campus or elsewhere.
The following are examples of recently-acquired titles which might be of interest to students and faculty in Politics:

America's Founding Charters: Primary Documents of Colonial and Revolutionary Era Governance (3 volumes)

Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures

Encyclopaedia of Judaism

Encyclopedia of Western Colonialism Since 1450

International Security (journal).
Available online.
"This study analyzes the political plights of twenty-eight terrorist groups– the complete list of foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) as designated by the U.S. Department of State since 2001... These andings suggest that (1) terrorist groups rarely achieve their policy objectives, and (2) the poor success rate is inherent to the tactic of terrorism itself."
This and other articles from this journal are available in Project Muse.

We recently added some biographical databases of elected officials to the Leyburn Library Web site.

The National Governors Association has created a database of current and former U.S. governors. (A link is available on several of our pages, including here.)

And the U.S. Conference Mayors has a similar database of current U.S. mayors. (One of our links is on this page.)

In addition, the official Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress has been updated to include the most recent arrivals. (We have a link to that directory on this page, among others.)

Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War College.
Available online.   Printed copy to be added to the collection.
Former Reagan Administration advisor Colin S. Gray writes that "Preemption and prevention are different concepts. To preempt is to attempt to strike first against an enemy who is in the process of preparing, or is actually launching, an attack against you. Preemption is not controversial. The decision for war has been taken out of your hands. Prevention, however, is a decision to wage war, or conduct a strike, so as to prevent a far more dangerous context maturing in the future... To strike preventively in self-defense is legal, though it will usually be controversial. Preventive war is simply war, distinguishable only by its timing, and possibly its motivation."
A link will be maintained on this library Web page.

Here are some of the online reference books the W&L University Library recently added to its collection:

Encyclopedia of American Indian History

Historical Dictionary of the Arab-Israeli Conflict

Historical Dictionary of Pakistan (3rd ed.)

African Biographical Dictionary (2nd ed.)

These books are listed in Annie and on various pages in the library's Web site, including course research pages. W&L students and faculty can use them from any location where they can log into to the computing network, whether on campus or elsewhere.

Congressional Quarterly Press.
Available online.   W&L subscription.
Profiles of hundreds of PAC's (political action committees) -- history, membership and listings of all other affiliate PAC's, contact information, and detailed financial data. This online subscription replaces the standing order we have had for the printed volumes.
Links will be maintained in various locations in our Web site, including here.

The W&L University Library and Law Library are working together to purchase an online collection of all U.S. Congressional hearings dating from 1824 to 1979.

The LexisNexis Congressional Hearings Digital Collection is a work-in-progress, with over 10,000 titles available thus far. The publisher is scanning and indexing documents, working backwards in time from 1979. The project is now entering the early 1970's and, thus, recently added quite a few Watergate-related materials.

Every item in this Digital Collection of hearings will include "official" forms of all hearing documents in PDF format. The full collection should be completed in 2009.

Here is our gateway page for this collection.

You should note that this link includes access not only to the 1824-1979 collection, but also to the more current, but less complete, collection of hearings dated 1980-to-date available through our LexisNexis Congressional subscription.

If you very recently searched Annie, the Washington and Lee University catalog, you may have noticed colorful pictures in your search results.

The “colorful pictures,” such as these, are images of book jackets and video packaging and they are only the most conspicuous of several new features in Annie, available beginning 22 August 2007.

Most of these features are intended to provide you with additional information about the item you are viewing in Annie.
For example, if you click on a book cover or a DVD cover, you may see (depending upon their availability) links to a summary of the book or movie, a larger image of the cover, and sources of reviews. Here is an example.
These summaries and reviews behind the images are not intended as scholarly research resources, but simply as supplementary information for readers and viewers.

More...

PS: Political Science & Politics
Available online.   Printed copy also in the collection.
"New research by political scientists examines the significance of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) for the political representation of people of color and documents 'a substantial relationship between the VRA and the election of nonwhite officials at the national, state, and local levels.'”

LexisNexis.
Available online.
This sub-set of the revised LexisNexis Congressional database allows you to search simultaneously through recent issues of Roll Call, The Hill, and Section A of the Washington Post.
Links will be maintained in several locations in our Web site, including here

Center for Responsive Politics / OpenSecrets.org
Available online.
Use the pull-down menus to display campaign fund-raising donations by gender to current presidential candidates. Data are from the U.S. Federal Election Commission.
A link will be maintained on this library Web page.