The Children Who Ran For Congress: A History of Congressional Pages

This book offers a meticulously researched, comprehensive chronology of the Congressional Page system, from the late 1700s to modern day.

From the origins of the page system in 1774 to the period in the 1940s when Congress demonstrated an indifference towards the needs of providing the boys with supervised living arrangements, congressional pages have a storied past. It's a topic that can be amusing--for years, pages simply treated the Capitol as a their private playground to subject adults to their mischief--and sobering, as Congress continued to employ boys as young as eight years old, even after passing labor laws that prohibited it and was reluctant to provide supervised living arrangements for decades.

Unlike many dry and lifeless books about Congressional history, The Children Who Ran For Congress: A History of Congressional Pages provides a lively and engaging look at the history of the page system, a topic that has largely been ignored. Based on a thorough investigation of historical documents and personal interviews, Darryl Gonzalez now tells the complete story of the young boys (and girls) who have served Congress for more than 200 years.

Author: Darryl Gonzalez
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Published: 10/21/2010
Pages: 328
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.45lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.30w x 1.30d
ISBN: 9780313386664

Review Citation(s):
Reference and Research Bk News 04/01/2011 pg. 161

About the Author

Darryl J. Gonzalez, PhD, is a federal employee in Washington, DC, and has worked in education for 20 years.