States of Exception in American History

"Americans take great pride in their respect for the rule of law and our Constitution. And yet too frequently specific legal rights and procedures protected by the Constitution have been suspended on the grounds of emergency, and we have tolerated the longer exclusion of groups such as African-Americans from the full protection of our laws and the Constitution. This collection of essays by leading historians and scholars of law and American history, explores what it means for a democracy to suspend the rule of law and how Americans both justify and dispute these suspensions. Too often they are treated as isolated events, ignoring larger patterns of exclusion from the rule of law, as well as the threat they pose to democracy. In this book the authors seek to weave together these stories to show what these suspensions tell us about the limits of American democracy"--

About the author

Gary Gerstle is the Paul Mellon Professor of American History at the University of Cambridge and the author of several books, including American Crucible and Liberty and Coercion. Joel Isaac is associate professor of social thought in the John U. Nef Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago. He is the author of In Working Knowledge and coeditor of The Worlds of American Intellectual History.

Product details

• Authors: Gary (EDT)/ Isaac Gerstle, Gary Isaac Gerstle
• Assisted by: Gary Gerstle (Editor), Joel Isaac (Editor), Isaac Joel (Editor)
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.08.2020
• EAN: 9780226712321
• ISBN: 978-0-226-71232-1
• No. of pages: 344
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History; Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; Social sciences, law, business > Law > Public law, administrative procedural law, constitutional procedural law; USA, POLITICAL SCIENCE / American Government / General, LAW / Constitutional, HISTORY / United States / General, Politics & government, United States of America, USA, Politics and government, History of the Americas, Constitution, Constitutional & administrative law