Constructing Civil Liberties: Discontinuities in the Development of American Constitutional Law - Hardcover

Kersch, Ken I.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521811783 ISBN 13: 9780521811781

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2004

Synopsis

This account of the development of the Supreme Court's modern civil liberties and rights jurisprudence argues that the courts' supposed "new concern" for "personal freedoms" (after the New Deal) actually developed as the outgrowth of a sequence of highly particular progressive-reformist ideological currents that formed the modern American state. The book's theoretically-informed account of key paths of constitutional development thus weaves American political thought, American political development, and constitutional law together.

About this title

Book Description

This book is a revisionist account of the development of the Supreme Court's modern civil liberties and civil rights jurisprudence. It explains that jurisprudence not as evincing a new concern on the part of the Court for "personal freedoms" after the New Deal but rather as the outgrowth of a sequence of highly particular progressive-reformist ideological currents, that formed the modern American state. The book thus weaves American political thought, American political development, and constitutional law together in its theoretically-informed account of key paths of constitutional development.

Review

"This detailed book will fit well alongside revisionist accounts of constitutional and legal history. Highly recommended." B.E. Marston, formerly, SUNY Oswego, CHOICE

"This is a relentlessly interesting book, one that canat help but change the way the reader understands twentieth century American constitutional development... Constructing Civil Liberties is simply the most provocative and enlightening book on constitutional history that I have ever read." David Bernstein, American Historical Review

"This is a brilliant interdisciplinary study that should interest scholars in many fields, including cultural studies, history, international law, law and society, and political science. This comprehensive book is rich in historical detail and full of surprises...Kersch forces us to question our underlying assumptions about the real forces that shape historical developments...This extraordinary book is an absolutely first-rate study that meets the highest standards and deserves to be widely read." - Perspectives on Politics, Alison Dundes Renteln, University of Southern California

"Ken Kersch is among a growing coterie of political scientists, specializing in law and courts, who approach their discipline not through statistics, but through historical narrative. His pathbreaking book, whcih is a substantial contribution to political science, legal history, and constitutional theory, demonstrates the importance of this development." - Stephen A. Siegel, DePaul University College of Law

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521811783
• ISBN 13: 9780521811781
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 404