Synopses & Reviews
From Kennebunkport to Kauai, from the Rio Grande to the Northern Rockies, ours is a vast republic. While we may be united under one Constitution, separate and distinct states remain, each with its own constitution and culture. Geographic idiosyncrasies add more than just local character. Regional understandings of law and justice have shaped and reshaped our nation throughout history. Americas Constitution, our founding and unifying document, looks slightly different in California than it does in Kansas.
In The Law of the Land, renowned legal scholar Akhil Reed Amar illustrates how geography, federalism, and regionalism have influenced some of the biggest questions in American constitutional law. Writing about Illinois, the land of Lincoln,” Amar shows how our sixteenth presidents ideas about secession were influenced by his Midwestern upbringing and outlook. All of todays Supreme Court justices, Amar notes, learned their law in the Northeast, and New Yorkers of various sorts dominate the judiciary as never before. The curious Bush v. Gore decision, Amar insists, must be assessed with careful attention to Florida law and the Florida Constitution. The second amendment appears in a particularly interesting light, he argues, when viewed from the perspective of Rocky Mountain cowboys and cowgirls.
Propelled by Amars distinctively smart, lucid, and engaging prose, these essays allow general readers to see the historical roots of, and contemporary solutions to, many important constitutional questions. The Law of the Land illuminates our nations history and politics, and shows how Americas various local parts fit together to form a grand federal framework.
Review
Edward J. Larson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Return of George Washington, 1783 1789In The Law of the Land, Americas foremost constitutional law scholar Akhil Reed Amar provides a travelogue showing how geography impacts constitutional interpretation and understanding. I highly recommend jumping aboard for this informative and entertaining ride.”
Review
Washington PostIn the era of blue states and red states, it is a challenge to develop new theories about the governance of our country. In The Law of the Land, Yale Law School professor Akhil Reed Amar has done just that by examining a range of issues involving the Constitution and the Supreme Court through the lens of geographical differences.... Amar is one of the leading constitutional scholars in the country and an extremely creative thinker. The book is at its best when he explores some of his own elegant constitutionalism to explain the work of justices or insights about the Constitution.”
Wall Street Journal
[Amars] latest effort, The Law of the Land, reflects both his devotion and his creativity. The essays here are civics lessons, artfully blending the conventional with the controversial. The prose is graceful and livened by an easy sense of humor.... We can all learn from following him on his travels across the continent.”
Los Angeles Review of Books
[The Law of the Land] is profound in its insights about the United States Constitution.... The book is filled with fascinating and important discussions of constitutional issues.... Amars analysis is consistently original.... Amar has written a fascinating book on constitutional history.”
Library Journal, Editors' Spring Picks
The connections Amar makes are intriguing.... Sections on how the Supreme Court has evolved in modern times are particularly interesting, as are the potential ramifications of what Amar calls the judicialization of the judiciary.”
Library Journal
The author combines a thorough knowledge of the subject and an interesting premise with straightforward, sometimes humorous prose to create a book that entertains and educates.”
Publishers Weekly
This ambitious treatise shows how landmarks in American constitutional history can be viewed as products of topography.... [Amar] amply proves that the varied American landscape provides an illuminating lens with which to view our legal systems fundamental tenets.”
Kirkus
[Readers] will delight in [Amars] smooth prose, his frank confessions of bias, his frequently sharp insights and the many sparkling nuggets he scatters throughout, whether about the location of the only national park site named after a Supreme Court case or how Camden, New Jersey, got its name. A provocative, consistently interesting take on our constitutional history.”
Steve Calabresi, Clayton J. and Henry R. Barber Professor of Law at Northwestern University
A tour de force by the best U.S. constitutional law scholar since Justice Joseph Story! Akhil Reed Amar understands and explains American Federalism and the role of the fifty states better and more deeply than anyone else. A fun, insightful, and enjoyable tour through the landscape of Constitutional Federalism.”
Jeffrey Toobin, author of The Oath: The Obama White House and the Supreme Court
With The Law of the Land, Akhil Reed Amar has again demonstrated why he is Americas foremost interpreter and explicator of our Constitution. In The Law of the Land, Amar turns his attention to the way geographical differences have shaped American law in surprising and revealing ways. As always, reading Amar is both a pleasure and an education.”
Richard Brookhiser, author of Founders Son: A Life of Abraham Lincoln
Akhil Reed Amar writes in clear and entertaining English, with a journalists eye for drama and detail and a patriots eye for the sweep of the American experience. Smart general readers interested in constitutional law will be pleased and instructed.”
Laurence H. Tribe, Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard University and Professor of Constitutional Law, Harvard Law School
Akhil Reed Amar has done it again! In his new book, The Law of the Land, Amar has woven a page-turning constitutional tapestry of our federal and state relationships that sings like a Woody Guthrie tune. In civics, politics, and biography, the genius of our geographyboth historic and contemporarycomes alive as Amar guides us through the uniquely American landscape of law and its greatest constitutional prophets. Firmly grounded in the logic of place, this majestic narrative will enlighten and inspire lay and legal readers alike: its a Magical Mystery Tour of a difficult subject made accessible by a masterful Sherpa.”
Edward J. Larson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Return of George Washington, 1783 1789
In Law of the Land, acclaimed constitutional law scholars Akhil Amar presents a travelogue showing how geography impacts constitutional interpretation and understand. I highly recommend jumping aboard for this informative and entertaining ride.”
Synopsis
From Illinois to Alabama, and from Florida to Wyoming, our laws and legal debates arise from distinctive local settings within our vast and varied nation. As the renowned scholar Akhil Amar explains, Abraham Lincolns argument against the legality of secession can be traced to his Midwestern upbringing, just as a close look at the Florida legislature and state Supreme Court reveals the fundamental wrongness of the
Bush v. Gore decision.
Amar profiles Alabamas Hugo Black, the dominant constitutional jurist of the twentieth century, and Californias Anthony Kennedy, the powerful swing justice on the current Court. He probes Brown v. Board of Education, and explores the divisiveness of the Second and Fourth Amendments. An expert guide to Americas constitutional landscape, Amar sheds new light on American history and politics and shows how Americas legal tradition unites a vast and disparate land.
About the Author
Akhil Reed Amar is Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale University. Author of
Americas Constitution and
Americas Unwritten Constitution and the winner of awards from the American Bar Association and the Federalist Society, among others, Amar lives in Woodbridge, Connecticut.
Table of Contents
PrefacePart I: Constitutional Interpreters
1. ILLINOIS: Abraham Lincoln and the American Union
2. ALABAMA: Hugo Black and the Hall of Fame
3. NEW YORK: Robert Jackson and the Judicialization of the Judiciary
4. CALIFORNIA: Anthony Kennedy and the Ideal of Equality
Part II: Constitutional Cases
5. KANSAS: Living in the Shadow of Brown v. Board
6. IOWA: Rereading Tinker vs. Des Moines
7. FLORIDA: Getting to the Bottom of Bush V. Gore
PART III: Constitutional Provisions and Principles
8. OHIO: A Buckeye-State View of Presidents Without Mandates
9. TEXAS: A Lone-Star View of Presidential Selection and Succession
10. WYOMING: A Rocky-Mountain View of the Second Amendment
11. MASSACHUSETTS: A Bay-State View of the Fourth Amendment
12. NEW JERSEY: Lord Camden Meets Federalism
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Appendix: The Constitution of the United States
Notes
Index