Synopses & Reviews
"Must reading for anyone who seeks a better understanding of the U.S. Supreme Court's role in race relations policy."
Choice
"Beware! Those committed to the Supreme Court as the ultimate defender of minority rights should not read Race Against the Court. Through a systematic peeling away of antimajoritarian myth, Spann reveals why the measure of relief the Court grants victims of racial injustice is determined less by the character of harm suffered by blacks than the degree of disadvantage the relief sought will impose on whites. A truly pathbreaking work."
Derrick Bell
As persuasive as it is bold. Race Against The Court stands as a necessary warning to a generation of progressives who have come to depend on the Supreme Court of the perils of such dependency. It joins with Bruce Ackerman's We, the People and John Brigham's Cult of the Court as the best in contemporary work on the Supreme Court.
Austin Sarat, William Nelson,Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science, Amherst College
The controversies surrounding the nominations, confirmations, and rejections of recent Supreme Court justices, and the increasingly conservative nature of the Court, have focused attention on the Supreme Court as never before. Although the Supreme Court is commonly understood to be the guardian of minority rights against the tyranny of the majority, Race Against The Court argues that the Court has never successfully performed this function. Rather the actual function of the Court has been to perpetuate the subordination of racial minorities by operating as an undetected agent of majoritarian preferences in the political preferences. In this provocative, controversial, and timely work, Girardeau Spann illustrates how the selection process for Supreme Court justices ensures that they will share the political preferences of the elite majority that runs the nation. Customary safeguards that are designed to protect the judicial process from majoritarian predispositions, Spann contends, cannot successfully insulate judicial decisionmaking from the pervasive societal pressures that exist to discount racial minority interests.
The case most often cited as the icon of Court sensitivity to minority rights, Brown v. Board of Education, has more recently served to lull minorities into believing that efforts at political self-determination are futile, fostering a seductive dependence and overreliance on the Court as the caretaker of minority rights. Race Against The Court demonstrates how the Court has centralized the law of affirmative action in a way that stymies minority efforts for meaningful political and economic gain and how it has legitimated the legal status quo in a way that causes minorities never even to question the inevitability of their subordinate social status.
Spann contends that racial minorities would be better off seeking to advance their interests in the pluralist political process and proposes a novel strategy for minorities to pursue in order to extricate themselves from the seemingly inescapable grasp of Supreme Court protection. Certain to generate lively, heated debate, Race Against The Court exposes the veiled majoritarianism of the Supreme Court and the dangers of allowing the Court to formulate our national racial policy.
Synopsis
The Companion to Irish Traditional Music represents a landmark in the study of one of the Western world's most universally recognizable forms of cultural expression. This ambitious volume comes at a time when Irish music and culture is experiencing a genuine renaissance, as evidenced by the popularity of such phenomena as Riverdance.
Only a handful of books have attempted to present an overall picture of Irish traditional music, and many of these are now outdated or out of print. Since the late 1960s, the traditional music scene has changed radically: the commercial life of traditional music has mushroomed, bringing with it tremendous growth in what might be called music tourism. At the same time, an energetic revivalism has taken hold, the result of a wealth of new approaches to playing and spirited debate over the influence of traditionalism in Irish music.
Fintan Vallely has harnessed the expertise of dozens of specialists who between them present a remarkably comprehensive picture of the field, incorporating ancient history, past ideals, and contemporary ideologies. The companion presents A-Z descriptions of individuals, traditions, and instruments, as well as an analysis of the modern history of traditional music-making. Biographical entries cover significant musicians and composers and central themes; central themes within traditional music, such as the oral tradition, the Bardic system, and the politics of Irish music, are given extended entries.
Not just the ideal reference for the interested enthusiast, The Companion to Irish Traditional Music provides a unique resource for every home, school, or library with an interest in the distinctive rituals, qualities, and history of Irish traditional music and song.
About the Author
An accomplished musician and music writer, Fintan Vallely lectures on Irish music and ethnomusicology at Maynooth College and is a regular reviewer and commentator for The Irish Times and numerous other papers.