Email, Brian W. Smith, associate professor of political science, St. Edward’s University, Dec. 11, 2014

10:28 p.m.

We did not have scientific polling until the mid-20th century and we did not ask  Americans until recently what they thought of congress.  This means it is impossible to say that this congress is the most upopular in "history".  

Following up on the information you sent me, Gallup keeps about the most regular polling on the issue and has questions going back to the 1970's, and they demonstrate that congress has never been very popular with the exception of the period around 9/11/2001.  Although they first asked the question in 1974, they only started asking the congressional approval question every month beginning in 2001.

I also made a chart that takes the average of Gallup polls (back to 2001) by Congress.  The 113th (current) is the most unpopular.  Attached is the Gallup Data

It is fair to say that that this Congress will have the lowest approval since we began collecting data.  This is true as an average, and the 113 congress has the lowest single approval at 9% which was in November 2013.  The caveat to all of this is that although we hate congress, we still love our representative.  Which means that in even times of congressional disdain, incumbents do very well at the polls.

I hope this helps

sincerely

Brian W. Smith