Synopses & Reviews
In
The Washington Post, Julius Lester praised Richard Delgado's
The Rodrigo Chronicles: Conversations about America and Race as free of cant and ideology. . . . an excellent starting place for the national discussion about race we so desperately need.
The New York Times has hailed Delgado as a pioneer in the study of race and law, and the
Los Angeles Times has compared his storytelling style to Plato's Dialogues.
In The Coming Race War?, Delgado turns his attention to the American racial landscape in the wake of the mid-term elections in 1994. Our political and racial topography has been radically altered. Affirmative action is being rolled back, immigrants continue to be targeted as the source of economic woes, and race is increasingly downplayed as a source of the nation's problems. Legal obstacles to racial equality have long been removed, we are told, so what's the problem?
And yet, the plight of the urban poor grows worse. The number of young black men in prison continues to exceed those in college. Informal racial privilege remains entrenched and systemic. Where, asks Delgado in this new volume, will this lead? Enlisting his fictional counterpart, Rodrigo Crenshaw, to untangle the complexities of America's racial future, Delgado explores merit and affirmative action; the nature of empathy and, more commonly, false empathy; and the limitations of legal change. Warning of the dangers of depriving the underprivileged of all hope and opportunity, Delgado gives us a dark future in which an indignant white America casts aside, once and for all, the spirit of the civil rights movement, with disastrous results.
Review
"The strengths of the book are many. The theme is well conceived and argued. It is thought provoking and informative. The author has done his homework. . . . [and] does a good job of weaving his theme from chapter to chapter." -The Law and Politics Book Review,
Review
"Highly recommended." -Choice,
Review
"John Brigham's work is always at the cutting edge of law and politics research. This book is the clearest statement yet of the newest research direction, one that takes as its key words, 'constitute,' 'discourse,' and 'practice.'" -Martin Shapiro,School of Law,University of California, Berkeley
Review
"In the wake of legal realism, it has become commonplace to question the distinction between law and politics. Usually, this is accomplished by asserting that law is a creature of politics, with legal doctrines serving as a mere medium for the conveyance of normative political preferences. In The Constitution of Interests, however, Professor Brigham demonstrates that the causal arrow also points in the opposite direction. Political and ideological movements can be understood as products of the very legal concepts that they seek to transcend. Brigham's thesis is thoughtful, carefully constructed, and tantalizing in its implications."-Girardeau A. Spann,Professor Law, Georgetown University
Review
Synopsis
John Brigham examines the effects of law on politics and the ways in which political life finds its expression in a surprising variety of legal forms.
Synopsis
Many of America's most important social and political movements--abolition, women's suffragette, civil rights, women's liberation, gay and lesbian rights--have organized in the shadow of the law. All are based in their theoretical opposition to the law. Yet at the same time, they are dependent on the laws that prohibit them. Law is thus formed as much through the dynamic tensions that govern how these laws are received as through their official decree.
Legal forms such as contracts, property, and rights also constitute social and political life because they structure our world. John Brigham here focuses on four ideological movements and their strategies, among them the struggle over the closing of gay bathhouses in the early years of the AIDS crisis and the radical feminist use of rage and radical consciousness in anti- pornography campaigns. The effect of law on politics, Brigham convincingly reveals, is pervasive precisely because political life finds its expression in a surprising variety of legal forms.
Synopsis
Many of America's most important social and political movements--abolition, women's suffragette, civil rights, women's liberation, gay and lesbian rights--have organized in the shadow of the law. All are based in their theoretical opposition to the law. Yet at the same time, they are dependent on the laws that prohibit them. Law is thus formed as much through the dynamic tensions that govern how these laws are received as through their official decree.
Legal forms such as contracts, property, and rights also constitute social and political life because they structure our world. John Brigham here focuses on four ideological movements and their strategies, among them the struggle over the closing of gay bathhouses in the early years of the AIDS crisis and the radical feminist use of rage and radical consciousness in anti- pornography campaigns. The effect of law on politics, Brigham convincingly reveals, is pervasive precisely because political life finds its expression in a surprising variety of legal forms.
About the Author
Richard Delgado is University Professor at Seattle University Law School. Author of numerous articles and books on Latinos and civil rights, including The Rodrigo Chronicles, he is also one of the founders of critical race theory.