Synopses & Reviews
Chronicling American law from its English origins to the present, and offering for the first time comprehensive coverage of twentieth-century developments, this book sets American law and legal institutions in the broad context of social, economic, and political events, weaving together themes
from the history of both public and private law. A history of law in action, The Magic Mirror treats law in society, and the legal implications of social change in areas such as criminal justice, the rights of women, blacks, the family, and children. It further examines regional differences in
American legal culture, the creation of the administrative and security states, the development of American federalism, and the rise of the legal profession. Hall pays close attention to the evolution of substantive law categories--such as contracts, torts, negotiable instruments, real property,
trusts and estates, and civil procedure--and addresses the intellectual evolution of American law, surveying movements such as legal realism and critical legal studies. Hall concludes that over its history American law has been remarkably fluid, adapting in form and substance to each successive
generation without ever fully resolving the underlying social and economic conflicts that provoke demands for legal change. The book's organization reflects typical course structure and its style is clear and accessible to students, making it the ideal text for the study of American legal history
at both the undergraduate and graduate level.
Synopsis
This book is a path-breaking work that uses biographical techniques to test one of the most widely debated questions in international politics: Did the advent of the nuclear bomb prevent the Third World War? The book's authors argue almost unanimously that nuclear weapons did have a significant effect on the thinking of the leading statesmen of the nuclear age, but a dissenting epilogue from John Mueller challenges this thesis.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 284-388) and index.
About the Author
PROFESSOR JOHN GADDIS is Professor of History at Yale
DR PHILIP GORDON is Director for European Affairs, National Security Council, Washington
PROFESSOR ERNEST MAY is Professor of History at Harvard
PROFESSOR JONATHAN ROSENBERG is Assistant Professor of History at Florida Atlantic University
Table of Contents
Introduction by Ernest May
1. `War No Longer Has Any Logic Whatever': Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Thermonuclear Revolution, Andrew P. N. Erdmann
2. Longing for International Control, Banking on American Superiority: Harry S Truman's Approach to Nuclear Energy, S. David Broscious
3. Stalin and the Nuclear Age, Vladislav M. Zubok
4. John Foster Dulles' Nuclear Schizophrenia, Neil Rosendorf
5. Bear Any Burden?: John F. Kennedy and Nuclear Weapon, Philip Nash
6. The Nuclear Education of Nikita Khrushchev, Vladislav M. Zubok and Hope M. Harrison
7. Before the Bomb and After: Winston Churchill and the Use of Force, Jonathan Rosenberg
8. Between `Paper' and `Real' Tigers: Mao's View of Nuclear Weapons, Shu Guang Zhang
9. Charles De Gaulle and the Nuclear Revolution, Philip H. Gordon
10. Konrad Adenauer: Defence Diplomat on the Backstage, Annette Messemer
Conclusion. Nuclear Statesmen, John Lewis Gaddis
Epilogue, John Mueller