Book excerpt: The United States Congressional Serial Set is commonly referred to as the Serial Set which contains the House and Senate Documents and the House and Senate Reports. The Serial Set is probably the most important series of publications on all aspects of American life from 1789-present. Its thousands of volumes are filled with fascinating historical reports, stunning illustrations and maps, and mountains of statistics and data. The Serial Set tells the story of the United States using primary source documents. This book is divided into two sections. The first section discusses the physical makeup (maps, illustrations, etc.) and the different document types in the Serial Set. The second section contains essays focused on different subject areas in the Serial Set.