A People's History of the Supreme Court
The Men and Women Whose Cases and Decisions Have Shaped Our Constitution

This groovy and jargon-free narrative is both more and less than the title suggests. "People's history" now indicates an openly ideological effort to recast "history" with sociology, underground martyrs, tragedies, and a general attempt to foreground the voiceless, plus ignore the "Great Men" except......more

For those with an interest in the Supreme Court, this book is for you. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, its tone, and the history behind the cases it writes about. Most probably know Plessy v Ferguson or Brown v Board of Education but most might not know the backstory to these and other cases that......more

A People's History of the Supreme Court: The Men and Women Whose Cases and Decisions Have Shaped Our Constitution, Peter Irons, 1999. Pre-Civil-War decisions such as Dred Scott helped make the Civil War necessary, by refusing to impose judicial limits, nor even honor political limits, to slavery. Po......more

This book is a very dense, informative history of the Court, filled with details of the backgrounds of the Justices and the cases under consideration. The title "The People's History of the Supreme Court" conveys the author's slant on the workings of the Court (its foreword is written by the author'......more

This 500+ page legal history was a long slog, but worth it. I learned so much, I feel ready to take the LSATs. It was especially cool to have finished it on the very day that the Court upheld the Affordable Health Care Act. As you’ll see by my status updates, that’s not the result I predicted. I read......more