COURT AND THE CONSTITUTION [Hardcover]

Archibald Cox (Author), Jonathan Berck (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 27, 1987

America's foremost professor of constitutional law celebrates the bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution in a history of its interpretation, reviewing its evolution from framing to the present.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Cox, a Harvard law professor who was special prosecutor during Watergate, here presents a lucid, authoritative history of the Constitution's role in American life. The document has served well, he writes, because its framers said "enough but not too much," giving subsequent generations a continuity of principles that, nonetheless, could meet changing needs. Cox focuses on how the Supreme Court assumed and acted on the power to interpret the Constitution's often vague meaning throughout the stages of U.S. development. Once called upon primarily to settle constitutional issues involving the growth of a national economy, and later the rise of the welfare state, the Court since World War II has been the Constitution's "voice" in the protection of individual rights, he shows. General readers will appreciate Cox's ability to get to the heart of complex issues. BOMC and History Book Club selections.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

The genius of the framers of the U.S. Constitution, suggests Cox, "lay in their remarkable capacity for saying enough but not too much." Over the years, the ultimate authority on what the Constitution means has been the Supreme Court through its power of judicial review, a unique American invention and subject of this fine book. Cox, professor emeritus at the Harvard Law School and former Watergate Special Prosecutor, provides a searching analysis of landmark cases, from Marbury v. Madison to Roe v. Wade, that have contributed to the implementation of the doctrine of judicial review. A valuable addition is Cox's lengthy and intimate prologue, in which he discusses his role in the Watergate crisis. This is among the best of the recent books on U.S. constitutional law for nonspecialists. BOMC and History Book Club selections. Kenneth F. Kister, Pinellas Park P.L., Fla.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 433 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin; BC ed. edition (August 27, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395379334
• ISBN-13: 978-0395379332
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,541,097 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must Read, August 5, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Court and the Constitution (Paperback)

I read this book for a class on American Government; it is extremely interesting and well-written. I enjoyed it immensely.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Solid and Readable Grounding in Constitutional Law, August 26, 2006

By 

Douglas S. Wood "Vicarious Life" (Monona, WI) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Court and the Constitution (Paperback)

Archibald Cox, Nixon's nemesis, explains the history of the Supreme Court and its consitutional interpretations. Read this book and discard simplisitic notions about liberal 'activist' judges. Perhaps the most activist judges in US history were the conservatives that frustrated Roosevelt's New Deal legislation. Was John Marshall an 'activist' when he asserted the right and duty of the Supreme Court to 'say what the law is' in Marbury v. Madison? That case established the rule of law as much as any other single act in Anglo-American legal history.

Most lawyers probably need to read this book (I am one), but it is very accessible to the lay reader as well.