New from the University of California Press: Rot and Revival: The History of Constitutional Law in American Political Development by Anthony Michael Kreis.
About the book, from the publisher:
Rot and Revival is one of the first scholarly works to comprehensively theorize and document how politics make American constitutional law and how the courts affect the path of partisan politics. Rejecting the idea that the Constitution's significance and interpretation can be divorced from contemporary political realities, Anthony Michael Kreis explains how American constitutional law reflects the ideological commitments of dominant political coalitions, the consequences of major public policy choices, and the influences of intervening social movements. Drawing on rich historical research and political science methodologies, Kreis convincingly demonstrates that the courts have never been—and cannot be—institutions lying outside the currents of national politics.--Marshal Zeringue