Congress at the Grassroots: Representational Change in the South, 1970–1998. By Richard F. Fenno, Jr. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000. 170p. $34.95 cloth, $16.95 paper.

Abstract

Not long ago, Richard Fenno was at an American Political Science Association convention, wondering aloud whether anyone might want to publish a case study of a single congressional district over almost three decades. The Uni- versity of North Carolina Press did, and congressional schol- ars and students of representation are indebted to the editors there. Just when we suspected that Fenno could not wring one more set of insights from his "soaking and poking" political anthropology, he produces a book that tells a profound tale of political change in the South (and in suburbia), gives us a grounded study of what it means to represent a constituency, and offers an understanding of both the Rayburn and Gingrich eras in the House of Representa- tives. In addition, students of Congress can enjoy this book in its nuanced referencing of Home Style, Fenno's still-relevant study of House members in their constituencies, published in 1978.