Kategoria BISAC: Political Science >> American Government - State

It is an unenviable task, but one that all state governments face: finding a final "resting place" for low-level nuclear waste from power plants, hospitals, university laboratories, and other industries. John Weingart was the official in New Jersey who for many years led this onerous charge. This book is the story of how he and a commission appointed by the governor, instead of imposing a top-down solution, designed an approach that would confront public fears by seeking a community that would volunteer to host a disposal facility. Initially, this novel approach was surprisingly...

Women were once excluded everywhere from the legal profession, but by the 1990s the Virginia Supreme Court had three women among its seven justices. This is just one example of how law in Virginia has been transformed over the past century, as it has across the South and throughout the nation.

In Blue Laws and Black Codes, Peter Wallenstein shows that laws were often changed not through legislative action or constitutional amendment but by citizens taking cases to state and federal courtrooms. Due largely to court rulings, for example, stores in Virginia are no longer...

On September 24, 1830, Stephen G. Simmons, a fifty-year-old tavern keeper and farmer, was hanged in Detroit for murdering his wife, Levana Simmons, in a drunken, jealous rage. Michigan executed only two people during the fifty-year period, from 1796 to 1846, when the death penalty was legal within its boundaries. Simmons was the second and last person to be executed under Michigan law. In "A Hanging in Detroit "David G. Chardavoyne vividly evokes not only the crime, trial, and execution of Simmons, but also the setting and players of the drama, social and legal customs of the times, and...

Are we environmentally victimizing, perhaps even poisoning, our minority and low-income citizens? Proponents of "environmental justice" assert that environmental decisionmaking pays insufficient heed to the interests of those citizens, disproportionately burdens their neighborhoods with hazardous toxins, and perpetuates an insidious "environmental racism." In the first book-length critique of environmental justice advocacy, Christopher Foreman argues that it has cleared significant political hurdles but displays substantial limitations and drawbacks. Activism has yielded a presidential...

"Three Capitals is an in-depth study of Alabama's first three seats of government--St. Stephens, Huntsville, and Cahawba.... The University of Alabama Press has reprinted the book in a handsome new edition with a pertinent introduction by Malcolm C. McMillan. Brantley's study is a tribute to the accomplishments of an amateur historian and contains a wealth of useful information."

--Bulletin of the History of the Early American Republic

Autobiography explores Hawaii's social and economic fabric through the comments of 35 progressive activists. The activists range in age from the mid 30s to the late 70s and comment on their involvement on issues such as housing, labor, land use, poverty, environment, sexual harassment, seniors, and sovereignty. Almost one-half are women and there is an even split between those born in Hawaii and those born elsewhere.

The book begins with an overview of political activism in Hawaii, and then records the oral history of the 35 acitivists. Each was asked to respond to factors that...

As late as mid-1941 the two territories of Alaska and Hawai'i were little known by most Americans. Alaska was seen as a frozen wasteland and Hawai'i, an exotic outpost in the mid-Pacific with a multi-racial, particularly Asian, population. The bombing of Pearl Harbor in late 1941 and the capture of two Aleutian Islands in 1942 made the two territories central theaters of World War II. Thousands of Americans came to know Alaska and Hawai'i as never before.

Once the war ended both territories hoped that statehood would be their reward for such loyal wartime service. Their strategic...

The Capitol Press Corps is a study of the interaction of New York State legislators, senior public officials, and the Capitol press corps during the three years following Nelson Rockefeller's departure. It analyzes media/government relations at a time of chronic fiscal crisis, divided party control of the Legislature, and a succession crisis in the formerly cohesive Republican party of New York State. The author ends his analysis with some prescriptions for better media/government relationships in New York State, and he provides an epilogue which updates developments in this arena into...