Customer Reviews

Constitutional Law and Politics, Sixth Edition, Volume 1

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Constitutional law is about as arcane a subject as you could never want to study. This series of books does the field justice by requiring the reader to keep a bottle of aspirin handy.

That aside, the book is well thought out in presentation of the intertwined aspects of law and politics, and how the courts worm their way through both. For example, between explanations of the origin of constitutional clauses and case opinions, there are usable data references (charts on case loads over the supreme court's history and a table of how often the court has reversed previous decisions, and alarmingly more frequent trend).

Net-net is that the book's organization helps the reader reach a fuller understanding of American constitutional law and the strengths (and weaknesses) therein. Be warned though -- these are not books for beginners. If you are new to con law, start with a broad overview like "The Words We Live By" before plunging into the sausage making factory disclosed in this book.

Professor O'Brien must surely be making valuable contributions with his numerous works, and this one should have been most helpful to me. But he or his publisher have opted for pretty, pale grey print -- almost impossible for middle-aged eyes to read without strain. I had ordered five of his books from Amazon and reluctantly returned them all.

This books was $75 less than if I would have bought it in my college bookstore.