Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Thanks to Mark Tushnet

The Legal History Blog thanks Mark Tushnet, who has been with us as a guest since the beginning of June. Mark is the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, and writes widely in American Legal History, Constitutional Law, and Comparative Constitutional Law. His most recent book is Why the Constitution Matters, just out in May from Yale University Press, and lauded by Sandy Levinson as "profoundly important and illuminating." According to the press:
In this surprising and highly unconventional work, Harvard law professor Mark Tushnet poses a seemingly simple question that yields a thoroughly unexpected answer. The Constitution matters, he argues, not because it structures our government but because it structures our politics. He maintains that politicians and political parties—not Supreme Court decisions—are the true engines of constitutional change in our system. This message will empower all citizens who use direct political action to define and protect our rights and liberties as Americans.
More book details are here. Mark’s posts, which have generated a lot of interest around the blogosphere, have included:

“Transformative” Supreme Court Appointments

Supreme Court Nominations in Historical Perspective
, parts one and two

How Does Constitutional Law Change?, and

Felix Frankfurter on the “Switch in Time”

Thanks to Mark!