Eileen B. Cooper, director of the Legal Information Center from 1987 until 2005, has donated a collection of books recently published about the U.S. Supreme Court to the library. Eight titles, ranging from biographical books to books on specific topics such as women’s rights, have been ordered. Some of the books are already on the library’s New Book Shelf. Several of the titles will also be located on the Harrisburg campus. One of the titles is a unique three-volume set, United States Supreme Court: Original Jurisdiction Cases and Materials, which will not only be on our shelves in a print edition, but will be accessible as an online version. Each of the books donated by Eileen has a book plate inside which recognizes her generous donation to our library.
Pauline Maier. Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, 1787-1788. New York : Simon & Schuster, 2010. KF4541 .M278 2010
From the publisher: When the delegates left the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in September 1787, the new Constitution they had written was no more than a proposal. Elected conventions in at least nine of the thirteen states would have to ratify it before it could take effect. There was reason to doubt whether that would happen. The document we revere today as the foundation of our country’s laws, the cornerstone of our legal system, was hotly disputed at the time. Some Americans denounced the Constitution for threatening the liberty that Americans had won at great cost in the Revolutionary War. One group of fiercely patriotic opponents even burned the document in a raucous public demonstration on the Fourth of July.
In this splendid new history, Pauline Maier tells the dramatic story of the yearlong battle over ratification that brought such famous founders as Washington, Hamilton, Madison, Jay, and Henry together with less well-known Americans who sometimes eloquently and always passionately expressed their hopes and fears for their new country. Men argued in taverns and coffeehouses; women joined the debate in their parlors; broadsides and newspaper stories advocated various points of view and excoriated others. In small towns and counties across the country people read the document carefully and knew it well. Americans seized the opportunity to play a role in shaping the new nation. Then the ratifying conventions chosen by “We the People” scrutinized and debated the Constitution clause by clause.
Although many books have been written about the Constitutional Convention, this is the first major history of ratification. It draws on a vast new collection of documents and tells the story with masterful attention to detail in a dynamic narrative. Each state’s experience was different, and Maier gives each its due even as she focuses on the four critical states of Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Virginia, and New York, whose approval of the Constitution was crucial to its success.
Shana Connell Noyes & Henry S Noyes. Acing Your First Year of Law School: The Ten Steps to Success You Won’t Learn in Class. Buffalo, NY: William S. Hein & Co., 2008. KF283 .N69 2008
This is one of the new books in our study aids collection. All study aids are located in the room behind the reference desk on the Delaware campus in the lobby area of the Harrisburg library.
