Gr 9 Up—Long overdue, this update of the 1975 edition compresses many of the original entries but adds six—on the 1975–1976 Church Committee Investigation of the CIA, the 1954 Army-McCarthy hearings, the 1987 Iran-Contra investigation, the Whitewater and Clinton impeachment hearings, and the inquiries following 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina. Beginning with the first official congressional investigation in 1792, each of the 29 chronologically ordered entries consists of a summary view of causes and effects that is elaborated on in a lengthy essay detailing the historical background along with the course of, and political maneuverings behind, each probe. Entries close with cogent analyses of short- and long-term impacts. Essays include a few black-and-white photos or period images, and are followed by several significant transcripts or other documents and a substantial bibliography. The overall tone is anything but dispassionate. Along with an acidulous introduction noting Congress's lack of "stomach" for any serious investigation of Blackwater, the collapse of the financial market, and other recent scandals, the contributors drop the term "witch hunt" into the account of the Harpers Ferry Raid investigation and close the Watergate chapter with a tagline about how the committee's findings shed a "bright light" that drove Nixon from office. As a chronicle of high- and low-water marks in congressional influence, this refreshed gathering of information and evidence (some of it original: the 9/11 Commission article is partly based on interviews for the set, for instance) is a unique resource for students of American history and politics.—John Peters, formerly at New York Public Library