Two New Books on the Dover, Pennsylvania Intelligent Design Case
Posted by admin on Oct 2, 2007
At the Harrisburg campus library, two new books about the Dover, Pennsylvania intelligent design case.
Gordy Slack. The Battle Over the Meaning of Everything: Evolution, Intelligent Design, and a School Board in Dover, PA. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2007. KF228.K589 S59 2007
Matthew Chapman. 40 Days and 40 Nights: Darwin, Intelligent Design, God, Oxycontin, and Other Oddities on Trial in Pennsylvania. New York, NY : Collins, c2007. KF228.K589 C58 2007
Educating Lawyers
Posted by admin on Sep 12, 2007
William M. Sullivan, et al. Educating Lawyers: Preparation for the Profession of Law. San Francisco, Jossey-Bass, 2007. KF272 .E38 2007
Patriots and Cosmopolitans
Posted by admin on Aug 10, 2007
John Fabian Witt. Patriots and Cosmopolitans: Hidden Histories of American Law. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2007. KF353 .W58 2007
From the publisher: Ranging widely from the founding era to Reconstruction, from the making of the modern state to its post-New Deal limits, John Fabian Witt illuminates the legal and constitutional foundations of American nationhood through the little-known stories of five patriots and critics. He shows how law and constitutionalism have powerfully shaped and been shaped by the experience of nationhood at key moments in American history.
Founding Father James Wilson’s star-crossed life is testament to the capacity of American nationhood to capture the imagination of those who have lived within its orbit. For South Carolina freedman Elias Hill, the nineteenth-century saga of black citizenship in the United States gave way to a quest for a black nationhood of his own on the West African coast. Greenwich Village radical Crystal Eastman became one of the most articulate critics of American nationhood, advocating world federation and other forms of supranational government and establishing the modern American civil liberties movement. By contrast, the self-conscious patriotism of Dean Roscoe Pound of Harvard Law School and trial lawyer Melvin Belli aimed to stave off what Pound and Belli saw as the dangerous growth of a foreign administrative state.
Religious Freedom and the Constitution
Posted by admin on Aug 10, 2007
Christopher L. Eisgruber, Lawrence G. Sager. Religious Freedom and the Constitution. Cambridge, Mass. Harvard University Press, 2007. KF4783 .E355 2007
From the publisher: Religion has become a charged token in a politics of division. In disputes about faith-based social services, public money for religious schools, the Pledge of Allegiance, Ten Commandments monuments, the theory of evolution, and many other topics, angry contestation threatens to displace America’s historic commitment to religious freedom. Part of the problem, the authors argue, is that constitutional analysis of religious freedom has been hobbled by the idea of “a wall of separation” between church and state. That metaphor has been understood to demand that religion be treated far better than other concerns in some contexts, and far worse in others. Sometimes it seems to insist on both contrary forms of treatment simultaneously. Missing has been concern for the fair and equal treatment of religion. In response, the authors offer an understanding of religious freedom called Equal Liberty.
Writing Essay Exams to Succeed
Posted by admin on May 1, 2007
John C. Dernbach. Writing Essay Exams to Succeed (Not Just to Survive). New York, Aspen Publishers, 2007. KF283 .D47 2007
This book by Widener professor John Dernbach was featured a few months ago. Now that it is exam time you might want to take another look at it. The Delaware campus library’s copies are in the open reserve room near the library entrance.
Stress Management for Lawyers
Posted by admin on Apr 18, 2007
Amiram Elwork. Stress Management for Lawyers: How to Increase Personal & Professional Satisfaction in the Law. North Wales, Pa., Vorkell Group, 2007. KF300 .E59 2007
From the publisher: This is a stress management book written specifically for lawyers. When you practice law, stress comes with the territory. Such stressors as time pressures, competition and conflict can rob you of a satisfying career and fulfilling personal life. However, you don’t have to suffer in silence. You can take action!
Amiram Elwork is the Director of Widener’s Law-Psychology (J.D.-Psy.D.) graduate program.
The Declaration of Independence
Posted by admin on Apr 18, 2007
David Armitage. The Declaration of Independence: A Global History. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 2007. E221 .A735 2007
Publisher’s Weekly review: Harvard history professor Armitage (Greater Britain, 1516-1776: Essays in Atlantic History) examines how America’s Declaration of Independence influenced the revolutionary struggles of people around the world. Armitage begins by teasing out the world as the Declaration imagined it: the international community consisted of “peoples linked by both benign and malign forms of commerce,” as well as divided by warfare and “threatened by outlaw powers.” He then describes how the world reacted to America’s Declaration: it almost immediately sparked debate about the basis on which a state was legitimate. Finally, Armitage traces the ripple effects of the Declaration: today half the world’s countries have such declarations. The author compares and contrasts these other documents with the American one, showing how other nascent nations sometimes drew on America’s language and ideas, such as a statement of grievances. Armitage suggests that this succession of declarations constitutes “a major transition in world history”: what was once a world of empires has become a world of sovereign states. This core argument is fascinating and significant, though lengthy appendixes, including several declarations, will interest primarily scholars. (Jan.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
A Well-Paid Slave
Posted by admin on Mar 9, 2007
Brad Snyder. A Well-Paid Slave: Curt Flood’s Fight for Free Agency in Professional Sports. New York, Viking, 2006. GV865.F45 S69 2006
From the publisher: Upon being traded to the Philadelphia Phillies in 1969, Curt Flood, an All-Star center fielder for the St. Louis Cardinals, wanted nothing more than to stay with St. Louis. But his only options were to report to Philadelphia or retire. Instead, Flood sued Major League Baseball for his freedom, hoping to invalidate the reserve clause in his contract, which bound a player to his team for life. Flood took his lawsuit all the way to the Supreme Court, and though he ultimately lost, his decision to sue cost him his career and a chance at the Hall of Fame. But Floodís place in baseball history, like that of Jackie Robinsonís, extends far beyond his accomplishments on the ballfield. Just three years later, the era of free agency that all professional athletes enjoy today became a reality.
In A Well-Paid Slave, the first extended treatment of Flood and his lawsuit, Brad Snyder examines this long-misunderstood case and its impact on professional sports. He reveals the twisted logic and behind-the-scenes vote switching behind the courtís decision and explains Floodís decision to sue in the context of his experiences during the civil rights movement. Astutely and dramatically told, A Well-Paid Slave will appeal broadly to fans of sports history, legal affairs, and American culture.
New Books on Immigration Law and Policy
Posted by admin on Mar 9, 2007
This month the library received several new books on immigration law and policy.
Aristide R. Zolberg. A Nation by Design: Immigration Policy in the Fashioning of America. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 2006. JV6483 .Z65 2006
From the publisher: According to the national mythology, the United States has long opened its doors to people from across the globe, providing a port in a storm and opportunity for any who seek it. Yet the history of immigration to the United States is far different. Even before the xenophobic reaction against European and Asian immigrants in the late nineteenth century, social and economic interest groups worked to manipulate immigration policy to serve their needs. In A Nation by Design, Aristide Zolberg explores American immigration policy from the colonial period to the present, discussing how it has been used as a tool of nation building.
A Nation by Design argues that the engineering of immigration policy has been prevalent since early American history. However, it has gone largely unnoticed since it took place primarily on the local and state levels, owing to constitutional limits on federal power during the slavery era. Zolberg profiles the vacillating currents of opinion on immigration throughout American history, examining separately the roles played by business interests, labor unions, ethnic lobbies, and nativist ideologues in shaping policy. He then examines how three different types of migration–legal migration, illegal migration to fill low-wage jobs, and asylum-seeking–are shaping contemporary arguments over immigration to the United States.
A Nation by Design is a thorough, authoritative account of American immigration history and the political and social factors that brought it about. With rich detail and impeccable scholarship, Zolberg’s book shows how America has struggled to shape the immigration process to construct the kind of population it desires.
Americans in Waiting
Posted by admin on Mar 9, 2007
Hiroshi Motomura. Americans in Waiting: The Lost Story of Immigration and Citizenship in the United States. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2006. JV6483 .M67 2006
From the publisher: In Americans in Waiting, Motomura discovers in our national past a simple yet powerful approach to immigration and citizenship. Rewriting the conventional story, Motomura uncovers how for over 150 years, many immigrants were immediately put on track to U.S. citizenship. They were entitled to overseas diplomatic protection and eligible to homestead land on the western frontier. Citizens-to-be were even allowed to vote. In sum, immigration was assumed to be a transition to citizenship, and immigrants were future citizens–Americans in waiting. Once central to law and policy, this view has all but vanished. Beginning in the early twentieth century, the United States began to treat its immigrants in one of two ways: as signatories to a contract that sets the terms of their stay in this country, or as affiliates who can earn rights only as they become, over time, enmeshed in the nations life. Immigration is now seen too often as a problem to be solved, rather than a pillar of our nations strength. A panoramic history of the past 200 years of immigration and citizenship in the United States, Americans in Waiting offers a clear lesson: only by recovering this lost of history of immigration can we ensure that both current and future citizens share in the sense of belonging that is crucial to full participation in American life.