The Chief Justiceship of John Marshall, 1801-1835 (Chief Justiceships of the United States Supreme Court) [Hardcover]

Herbert A. Johnson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1997 | Series: Chief Justiceships of the United States Supreme Court

Perhaps no individual has exerted a more profound influence on the United States Supreme Court or on the federal Constitution than Chief Justice John Marshall. In this history of the high court during the critical years from 1801 to 1835, Herbert A. Johnson offers a comprehensive portrait of the court's activities and accomplishments under Marshall's leadership. Johnson demonstrates that in addition to staving off political attacks from the Jeffersonian and Jacksonian political parties, the Marshall Court established the supremacy of the federal government in areas of national concern, enunciated the commerce and contract clauses as critical foundations for economic development, and definitively shaped the structure of federalism before the Civil War.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 317 pages
• Publisher: Univ of South Carolina Pr (March 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1570031215
• ISBN-13: 978-1570031212
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,436,676 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #82 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( M ) > Marshall, John

More About the Author

Herbert Alan Johnson (1934- )was born in Jersey City, NJ, and educated at Columbia University and New York Law School. He has taught at Hunter College (CUNY), the College of William and Mary, and the University of South Carolina. A legal and constitutional historian, he has written extensively on the Chief Justiceship of John Marshall, and is currently studying the divergence of American and English constitutionalism since the seventeenth century. A retired colonel in the Air Force Reserve, he has continued an interest in early aviation.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent legal analysis, January 2, 2000

By 

Bonnie Olson - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Chief Justiceship of John Marshall, 1801-1835 (Chief Justiceships of the United States Supreme Court) (Paperback)

For those who wish to read a biography of our greatest chief justice, this is not the book to read. For those who are interested in the jurisprudence of C.J. Marshall, this book provides an outstanding introduction. The book provides compelling, and accurate, evidence that in addition to John Marshall being a great jurist, he was also, and foremost, a founding father -- one of the few who realized the potential for our great nation. While it can be successfully argued that at times Marshall expanded the powers of the Supreme Court beyond those intended by the authors of the Constitution, the book also provides a compelling argument for the necessity of expanding those powers. Johnson successfully reasons that, where it not for Marshall's ability to occasionaly read "beyond" the strict guidelines of the Constitution, the role of judicial review (and hence our constitutional guarantees) would not exist today. Overall, an excellent study into a chief justice whose concerns where not those of partisanship -- but rather those of aiding a fledgling country through its formative years.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent chronology of topics, June 27, 2003

By 

John C. Adams "Christian Adams" (Alexandria Virginia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Chief Justiceship of John Marshall, 1801-1835 (Chief Justiceships of the United States Supreme Court) (Hardcover)

Let me first confess that I am the named research aide who assisted Professor Johnson on this book. But what I didn't have anything to do with was his useful organization of the caselaw into topical segments. Not only is this book a useful work for the reasons stated by the other reviewer(s), but if someone wants to know the Court's holdings over time in a number of areas, such as the law of nations or separation of powers, this is a useful book. Professor Johnson organizes the book so that a researcher may use it to glean trends on a particular topic rather than presenting a jumble of topics and leaving it up to the reader to discern the development of the law on a given issue.

I might also note that Professor Johnson's conducted meticulous research over many years organizing Supreme Court decisions by topic in a fashion only rivaled by West Publishing.