31st D.B. Hardeman Prize Winner - Dr. Ruth Bloch Rubin

The LBJ Foundation's 31st D.B. Hardeman Prize winner for the best book on the U.S. Congress is Dr. Ruth Bloch Rubin for her book, "Building the Bloc: Intraparty Organization in the U.S. Congress."

This year's presentation was hosted virtually by the LBJ School of Public Affairs' Washington Center on Wednesday, June 17, 2020. The event featured a keynote address by Congressman Derek Kilmer (WA-6) and a conversation with Dr. Rubin, moderated by Michael Thorning, associate director of governance for the Bipartisan Policy Center.

/// About Rubin

Dr. Rubin is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Chicago. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley and was previously a Robert Wood Johnson Scholar in Health Policy Research at Harvard University.

"Building the Bloc" offers a new theory of how organized groups of dissident lawmakers—such as the Blue Dog Coalition and House Freedom Caucus—drive congressional development and structure lawmaking. Spanning more than a century of history, it sheds new light on a number of decisive congressional conflicts and compromises.

/// About the Prize

D. Barnard Hardeman Jr. was a teacher, politician, and political advisor. He was a member of the Texas legislature before moving to Washington, D.C. in 1957 to serve as assistant to Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn. After Rayburn's death in 1961, Hardeman worked for Majority Whip Hale Boggs of Louisiana, and in 1964 the American Political Science Association named him the first Honorary Congressional Fellow. Upon his death in 1981, Hardeman bequeathed the seed money to create the prize that bears his name, as well as his extensive collection of books on American history and biography, to the LBJ Presidential Library.

The D.B. Hardeman Prize is awarded for the best book on the U.S. Congress, from the fields of biography, history, journalism, and political science. Candidates are judged on their contribution to scholarship and to the public's understanding of Congress as well as literary craftsmanship, originality, and depth of research.