Synopses & Reviews
In the collected essays here, Schlag established himself as one of the most creative thinkers in the contemporary legal academy. To read them one after another is exhilarating; Schlag's sophistication shines through. In chapter after chapter he tackles the most vexing problems of law and legal thinking, but at the heart of his concern is the questions of normativity and the normative claims made by legal scholars. He revisits legal realism, eenergizes it, and brings readers face-to-face with the central issues confronting law at the end of the 20th century.
--Choice, May 1997
Pierre Schlag is the great iconoclast of the American legal academy. Few law professors today are so consistently original, funny, and provocative. But behind his playful manner is a serious goal: bringing the study of law into the late modern/ postmodern age. Reading these essays is like watching a one-man truth squad taking on all of the trends and movements of contemporary jurisprudence. All one can say to the latter is, better take cover.
--J. M. Balkin, Lafayette S. Foster Professor, Yale Law School
At a time when complaints are heard everywhere about the excesses of lawyers, judges, and law itself, Pierre Schlag focuses attention on the American legal mind and its urge to lay down the law. For Schlag, legalism is a way of thinking that extends far beyond the customary official precincts of the law.
His work prompts us to move beyond the facile self- congratulatory self-representations of the law so that we might think critically about its identity, effects, and limitations. In this way, Schlag leads us to rethink the identities and character of moral and political values in contemporary discourse. The book brings into question the dominant normative orientation that shapes so much academic thought in law and in the humanities and social sciences. By pulling the curtain on the rhetorical techniques by which the law represents itself as coherent, rational, and stable, Laying Down the Law discloses the grandiose (and largely futile) attempts of American academics to control social and political meaning by means of scholarly missives.
Review
"This voice and timely book addresses the perceptual split between an officially 'colorblind' world and the lived experience of so many for whom race determines so much. Although centered on images of black men, these extraordinary essays provide compelling insights about stereotypes of women, whiteness, class status, ethnicity, and gender. From 'suspect profile' to 'natural athlete,' the disuniting effects of racial clichés are meticulously analyzed in this sharp and always moving anthology."-Patricia J. Williams,author of The Rooster's Egg and The Alchemy of Race and Rights
Review
"This exciting anthology breaks new ground in the battle to end misogyny and sexism. It gathers for the first time the diverse and eloquent voices of black men—many of them speaking out as feminists for a revitalized vision of feminism. This unique collection offers insights, perspectives rarely heard, and tremendous hope. It is required reading for all who care about the intersection of race, gender, class and sexuality."-Urvashi Vaid,Director of the Policy Institute of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and author of Virtual Equality: The Mainstreaming of Gay and Lesbian Liberation
Review
"This voice and timely book addresses the perceptual split between an officially 'colorblind' world and the lived experience of so many for whom race determines so much. Although centered on images of black men, these extraordinary essays provide compelling insights about stereotypes of women, whiteness, class status, ethnicity, and gender. From 'suspect profile' to 'natural athlete,' the disuniting effects of racial clichés are meticulously analyzed in this sharp and always moving anthology."
"This exciting anthology breaks new ground in the battle to end misogyny and sexism. It gathers for the first time the diverse and eloquent voices of black men—many of them speaking out as feminists for a revitalized vision of feminism. This unique collection offers insights, perspectives rarely heard, and tremendous hope. It is required reading for all who care about the intersection of race, gender, class and sexuality."
Review
"Schlag [has] established himself as one of the most creative thinkers in the contemporary legal academy. To read [these essays] one after another is exhilarating; Schlag's sophistication shines through. In chapter after chapter he tackles the most vexing problems of law and legal thinking."-Choice,
Review
"Pierre Schlag has been through the collapse of legal theory and lived to tell the tale, a tale that is burdened by as few illusions as possible except for the saving one of hope. He is also a great (and serious) comic." -Stanley Fish,Duke University
Review
Pierre Schlag is the great iconoclast of the American legal academy. Few professors today are so consistently original, funny, and provocative." -Jack Balkin,Yale Law School
Synopsis
In late 1995, the Million Man March drew hundreds of thousands of black men to Washington, DC, and seemed even to skeptics a powerful sign not only of black male solidarity, but also of black racial solidarity. Yet while generating a sense of community and common purpose, the Million Man March, with its deliberate exclusion of women and implicit rejection of black gay men, also highlighted one of the central faultlines in African American politics: the role of gender and sexuality in antiracist agenda.
In this groundbreaking anthology, a companion to the highly successful Critical Race Feminism, Devon Carbado changes the terms of the debate over racism, gender, and sexuality in black America. The essays cover such topics as the legal construction of black male identity, domestic abuse in the black community, the enduring power of black machismo, the politics of black male/white female relationships, racial essentialism, the role of black men in black women's quest for racial equality, and the heterosexist nature of black political engagement.
Featuring work by Cornel West, Huey Newton, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr., Houston Baker, Marlon T. Riggs, Dwight McBride, Michael Awkward, Ishmael Reed, Derrick Bell, and many others, Devon Carbado's anthology stakes out new territory in the American racial landscape.
--Critical America, A series edited by Richard Delgado and Jean Stephancic.
Synopsis
A groundbreaking anthology of essays providing commentary on gender and sexuality inclusion in the antiracist movement
In late 1995, the Million Man March drew hundreds of thousands of black men to Washington, DC, and seemed even to skeptics a powerful sign not only of black male solidarity, but also of black racial solidarity. Yet while generating a sense of community and common purpose, the Million Man March, with its deliberate exclusion of women and implicit rejection of black gay men, also highlighted one of the central faultlines in African American politics: the role of gender and sexuality in antiracist agenda.
In this groundbreaking anthology, a companion to the highly successful Critical Race Feminism, Devon Carbado changes the terms of the debate over racism, gender, and sexuality in black America. The essays cover such topics as the legal construction of black male identity, domestic abuse in the black community, the enduring power of black machismo, the politics of black male/white female relationships, racial essentialism, the role of black men in black women's quest for racial equality, and the heterosexist nature of black political engagement.
Featuring work by Cornel West, Huey Newton, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr., Houston Baker, Marlon T. Riggs, Dwight McBride, Michael Awkward, Ishmael Reed, Derrick Bell, and many others, Devon Carbado's anthology stakes out new territory in the American racial landscape.--Critical America, A series edited by Richard Delgado and Jean Stephancic
About the Author
Formerly Visiting Associate Professor of Law and Faculty Fellow at the University of Iowa, Devon Carbado is Acting Professor of Law at the University of California, Los Angeles.