with senate historian don richey. then the british inquiry into the iraq war. after that, a conversation on the process of becoming a u.s. citizen. >> this week on "q&a." senate historian don richey talks about the congress and its history -- don ritchie talks about the progress in its history. he talks about "advise and consent" and "mr. smith goes to washington." it is all part of his new book "the u.s. congress -- a very short introduction." >> u.s. senate historian donald ritchie, why did you decide to write a small book called "the u.s. congress." >> i was asked to write the book by oxford university press. they have a series called "a very short introduction." it is for educated people, but not in their field critical for science -- the college science for the lost verse and philosophy for scientists. they asked me to write a book about congress for people that did not study congress but are interested. the series has a very tight format -- 35,000 words. that was as much as i was able to write. my first draft was 75,000 words. even that did not include ev

senate historian don richey on the 1930 -- 1932 race between fdr and herbert hoover and kenneth ackerman on campaign and subsequent assassination of america's 20th president, james garfield. primetime, all this week on c- span2. >> the c-span network, provide coverage of politics, public affairs, nonfiction books, and american history. it is all available to you on television, radio, on line, and on social media networking site. find our content any time through c-span's video library. and we take c-span on the road with our digital bus, mobile contact judy content vehicle. it is washington your way, the c-span network. not available and more than 100 million homes. created by cable and provided as a public service. >> "washington journal" continues. host: ryan avent is online editor for "the economist." here is the headline, china is becoming or has become the second-largest economy in the world, surpassing japan. coming out from the latest statistics. let me put it up on the screen for our viewers. second quarter gdp -- that is what everyone was looking at. the united states second qua