In November 1994 the Republicans won control of both houses of Congress for the first time in forty years in a victory they immediately dubbed the Republican revolution. Swept into office in that election were seventy-three Republican freshmen, the storm troopers in Newt Gingrich's army. The Freshmen is the inside story of those men and women and of the tumultuous 104th Congress, one of the most historic and eventful congresses in recent history.

This book is the first detailed, behind-the-scenes account of the entire 104th Congress and is based on two years of extensive reporting and hundreds of interviews. Killian goes beyond the headlines to show us the power struggles through the eyes of the freshmen.

She takes us to the House floor, the committee rooms, and the private offices of Congress and follows the freshmen back to their districts in small-town America in places like Crossville, Tennessee, Wamego, Kansas, and Janesville, Wisconsin.

We meet class everyman Van Hilleary of Tennessee; firebrand and troublemaker Mark Neumann; former entertainer Sonny Bono; Enid Greene Waldholtz, who was forced to leave Congress in disgrace; and Sam Brownback, who used his freshman notoriety to win Bob Dole's seat in the U.S. Senate.

The Freshmen is a fascinating look at who the freshmen are and why they are different from other politicians. What did they actually accomplish and how did they change American politics? Much more than just the story of the Republican freshmen, this is the story of power and democracy, a vivid portrait of our times and of the issues facing our nation as we head into the twenty-first century.