Historical Encyclopedia of U.S. Independent Counsel Investigations

by Gerald S. Greenberg

Overview

This volume is a compilation of the U.S. federal special prosecutor/independent counsel investigations spanning the complete twenty-one year tenure from 1978-1999 of the independent counsel statute. The entries include individuals who have served as investigators; those who have been targets of investigations; all attorney generals who have called for appointment of special prosecutors; all presidents during whose terms of office such prosecutors served; and all legal cases that served to argue for or against the constitutionality of the independent counsel statute. These historical precedents are traced from Ulysses Grant's appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate the St. Louis Whiskey Scandal in 1875. More contemporary cases include Watergate, precipitated by Richard Nixon's Saturday Night Massacre dismissal of Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox in 1973; Independent Counsel Lawrence Walsh's Iran-Contra Investigation; and Special Prosecutor Ken Starr's Whitewater investigation of the Clintons and the ensuing permutations which brought individuals like Linda Tripp and Monica Lewinsky to prominence and also brought the statute calling for such investigations into constitutional debate.

The book is fully cross-referenced and contains a comprehensive bibliography and index. It will be of interest to scholars and students of American History and Constitutional History.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780313307355
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	09/30/2000
Pages:	550
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.06(d)
Lexile:	1330L (what's this?)

About the Author

GERALD S. GREENBERG is a Reference Librarian at Ohio State University's Education, Human Ecology, Psychology & Social Work Library. He is the compiler of Tabloid Jourbanalism: An Annotated Bibliography of English-Language Sources (Greenwood, 1996).

Table of Contents

Preface
Encyclopedia
Selected Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

Historians, lawyers, and political scientists, provide an extensive reference on the controversial office created in the middle 1970s by the US Congress as a response to the Watergate scandal to try to restore public confidence in government, and which was used for two decades as a political tool by both the Republicans and Democrats until both parties, realizing it was all blade and no handle, dissolved it in the spring of 1999. Librarian Greenberg (Ohio State U.) decided that as much information as possible should be easily available before scholars began the political and historical judgements. The entries include people, laws, cases, and other matters, each with its own references. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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