"The story of how Congress helped win the Civil War -- a new perspective that puts the House and Senate, rather than Lincoln, at the center of the conflict." --

"In this elegant, penetrating and moving portrait of the United States Congress, filmmaker Ken Burns profiles an American institution whose ideals and actions affect us all. Narrated by David McCullough, the program employs historic film footage and interviews with insiders" including David Broker, Alistair Cooke and Cokie Roberts to detail the personalities, events and issues that have animated Congress' first 200 years."--Publisher's website.

A United States Circuit Judge describes the historical struggles that took place between sitting presidents and Congress over who has the power to start wars, including the American Revolution, the War of 1812 and the Civil War, all the way up through the fight against ISIS.

"The United States now has three political parties, though only two of them are elected.The newest was founded a century ago, but just came to power in the last decade: It's the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the political party of the new American oligarchy. In this groundbreaking investigation of the big business takeover of the American political process, Alyssa Katz draws upon years of research to chronicle the rise to power of the organization and...

"The social changes and human and economic costs of the Civil War led to profound legal and constitutional developments after it ended, not least of which were the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments and the many laws devised to protect the civil rights of newly freed African Americans. These amendments and laws worked for a while, but they were ineffective or ineffectively enforced for more than a century. In Ending the Civil War and the Consequences...