Overview

This text considers the concept of constitutionalism as the subject matter of constitutional history and argues that the study of constitutionalism should be interdisciplinary, requiring the insights and methods of history, political science, and jurisprudence. It covers the evolution of American constitutionalism across the span of American history, from the Founding, to the Reconstruction, and on to the Cold War and the rise of the bureaucratic state in the 1980s.

Full Product Details

9780847686421

Table of Contents

Reviews

Herman Belz has been writing influential works in constitutional history for several decades now, and he has here collected nine of his previously published essays, along with new introductory and concluding chapters. [Belz] address[s] a wide range of topics in constitutional history, including the founding; the rise and decline of 'constitutional realism' during the gilded age, the Progressive era, and the Cold War; 'the New Left attack on constitutionalism' during the 1960's; and the debates over constitutional history in the 1980's. The central organizing theme is what Belz characterizes as a cyclical struggle between written and unwritten conceptions of constitutionalism. A particular strength of Belz's essays is a sustained effort to take seriously the relative autonomy of law from the social and political forces and the role of the constitutional norms in American political development. . . .--Tom Keck The Law And Politics Book Review

Author Information

Herman Belz is professor of history at the University of Maryland, College Park. He is the author of The American Constitution: Its Origins and Development, Equality Transformed: A Quarter Century of Affirmative Action, and Emancipation and Equal Rights: Politics and Constitutionalism in the Civil War Era, among other works.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available