Presidential and congressional investigations are particularly powerful tools
for asking tough questions about highly visible, often complex government
breakdowns. In this insightful work, Paul Light, one of America's premier
authorities on public service and management, provides a deep assessment of what
he has identified as the federal government's one hundred most significant
investigations since World War II.
The findings and impact of Light's top one hundred vary nearly as much as the
range of topics they covered, including communist infiltration of government and
the Sputnik launch during the 1950s, the Ku Klux Klan and Vietnam War during the
1960s; Watergate and Central Intelligence Agency abuses during the 1970s;