| Details | | Publication Date: | 1996-10-10 | | Edition Description: | Reprint |
| Size | | Height: | 5.3 in | | Width: | 8.3 in | | Thickness: | 0.8 in | | Weight: | 11.2 oz |
Publisher's Note
In this title the author portrays the events leading up to Roosevelt's showdown with the Supreme Court. The conservative 'Four Horsemen'--Justices Butler, Van Devanter, Sutherland, and McReynolds--struck down one regulatory law after another, outraging Roosevelt and much of the Depression-stricken nation. Roosevelt's infamous 'Court-packing plan' would have allowed the president to add one new justice for every sitting justice over the age of seventy, but it was defeated. Despite this failure, however, the president won his battle with the Supreme Court when the court changed its mind and, one by one, the Four Horsemen left the bench, to be replaced by Roosevelt's appointees. As a consequence of the Constitutional revolution that began in 1937, not only was the New Deal upheld (as precedent after precedent was overturned), but the Court also began a dramatic expansion of civil liberties that would culminate in the Warren Court. This book sheds new light on the great Constitutional crisis of the century, illuminating the legal and political battles that created today's Supreme Court.
To validate the revolutionary legislation of the New Deal, Franklin Roosevelt had to fight a ferocious battle against the opposition of the Supreme Court. Benefits like Social Security may now be seen as every American's birthright, but it took a Constitutional revolution to wrest such reform from the jaws of a laissez-faire Court. In "The Supreme Court Reborn," William E. Leuchtenburg deftly portrays the events leading up to Roosevelt's showdown with the Supreme Court, from the Court's relentless invalidation of regulatory laws to Roosevelt's notorious "Court-packing plan" which would have allowed the president to add one new justice for every sitting justice over the age of seventy. In fascinating detail Leuchtenburg shows that as a consequence of the Constitutional revolution that began in 1937, not only was the New Deal upheld (as precedent after precedent was overturned), but the Court also began a dramatic expansion of civil liberties that would culminate in the Warren Court. This superbly crafted book sheds new light on the great Constitutional crisis of the century, illuminating the legal and political battles that created today's Supreme Court.
Industry Reviews
"Much of the genius and grace of this book, and of William Leuchtenburg's enviably rich scholarly corpus, consists in his ability to hold these two perspectives in productive equilibrium, to acknowledge the innovativeness of the New Deal even while probing its limitations and, for better or worse, its enduring legacy."
Atlantic Monthly - David M. Kennedy (07/19/1995)
"Mr. Leuchtenberg's book does not so much plow new territory as reconceptualize an old story and make it fresh."
New York Times - Richard Bernstein
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