The Magic School Bus Lost In The Solar System (Magic School Bus)

Book Description

The fieldtrip to the planetarium is foiled when the museum turns out to be closed, but Ms. Frizzle saves the day. The Magic School Bus turns into a spaceship and takes the class on a trip zooming through the atmosphere, to the Moon, and beyond! With up-to-date facts about the solar system, revised for this edition.

Customer Reviews:

Magic school bus does it again!.......2007-02-06

All the magic school bus books are fantastic. This one is no different.
It is great for learning about the solar system.

This book rocks (asteroids)!.......2006-02-10

This book is a blast (no pun intended)! Mrs. Frizzle and her class travel to every planet in the solar system. The bus breaks down in the asteroid belt and the students have to find Mrs. Frizzle on a very cold planet. You'll love all the colorful pictures and Arnold's crazy cousin! Blast-off to this book and learn a lot about space in a fun way!

Lost in the Solar System.......2005-12-10

I like this book because it makes me wonder about the solar system and everything happening in it. I love imagining what things are like in other places and this book makes me think but it also taught me stuff about the solar system too. This book makes me want to visit the solar system myself.
Alyssa Seifferly

The Magic School Bus.......2004-02-12

This book is about a class who goes to the musuem but it is closed. So they see it up close. Janet was bragging about everything. After the trip they had learned a lot

I think the book is about being nice. The book is about learning new things. Learning new things is part of life. The book is saying to learn. The book is telling us to try new things.

I think the book is nice. The book has a series. It teaches you stuff. It also is funny. It's my favorite. It's fun to read.

Magic school bus "lost in solar system".......2004-02-04

I like this book because it has to deal with the solar system and i like to learn about space. It does a very good job teaching you about it, and the book was really fun to read. I like how the bus turnes into a space ship and goes to all the planets.

Feynman's Lost Lecture: The Motion of Planets Around the Sun

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If you are a Feynman fan
Feynman's proof of the law of ellipses
Lucid explanation of Feynman's proof of the law of ellipses
An Entertaining And Captivating Lecture
authors create a labour of love for Feynman

Feynman's Lost Lecture: The Motion of Planets Around the Sun
David L. Goodstein , Judith R. Goodstein , and Richard Phillips Feynman
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0393039188

Amazon.com

Richard Feynman, the rock star of theoretical physics, has left an image that belies his nerdy side. Not many bongo-playing surfer beatniks would have spent hours of their spare time proving Newton's law of elliptical planetary motion using only plane geometry. But Feynman's Lost Lecture: The Motion of Planets Around the Sun shows that the great man did just that. Originally delivered to an introductory physics class at Caltech in 1963, this 76-minute CD and book set contains everything the math-savvy listener needs to savor the pleasures of applied math. Caltech physicist David L. Goodstein and archivist Judith R. Goodstein found the notes and tape amid another professor's papers and set to work making sense of them; unfortunately, photographs of the blackboard drawings didn't survive. The book briefly covers their find and recovery work, then presents the proof as reconstructed--crucial reading if one is to follow the lecture. There's nothing easy about it, as Feynman acknowledges in the lecture:

I am going to give what I will call an elementary demonstration. "Elementary" means that very little is required to know ahead of time in order to understand it, except to have an infinite amount of intelligence.

He means, instead, that he is strictly using geometrical methods to reach his destination, which explains why it was so difficult to reconstruct without his diagrams. His charming Brooklyn accent and good humor show through in this lecture, even if the material is quite a bit drier than his fans might expect. Still, those interested in adding a new dimension to their understanding of this brilliant scientist--and those with a deep interest in Newtonian physics--will find The Motion of Planets Around the Sun a rare and unexpected treat. --Rob Lightner

Book Description

Rescued from obscurity, Feynman's Lost Lecture is a blessing for all Feynman followers. Most know Richard Feynman for the hilarious anecdotes and exploits in his best-selling books "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" and "What Do You Care What Other People Think?" But not always obvious in those stories was his brilliance as a pure scientist--one of the century's greatest physicists. With this book and CD, we hear the voice of the great Feynman in all his ingenuity, insight, and acumen for argument. This breathtaking lecture--"The Motion of the Planets Around the Sun"--uses nothing more advanced than high-school geometry to explain why the planets orbit the sun elliptically rather than in perfect circles, and conclusively demonstrates the astonishing fact that has mystified and intrigued thinkers since Newton: Nature obeys mathematics.

David and Judith Goodstein give us a beautifully written short memoir of life with Feynman, provide meticulous commentary on the lecture itself, and relate the exciting story of their effort to chase down one of Feynman's most original and scintillating lectures. David and Judith Goodstein live in Pasadena, California.

Customer Reviews:

If you are a Feynman fan.......2007-09-04

This is a lot of fun -- if. If you are pretty good at mathematical games and have a love for all things Feynman. What makes it work is the CD with Feynman giving the lecture. He goes at the speed of light, but he is always amazing, even when you have no idea what he just said! I can't imagine what it was like for the young folks trying to make sense out of what was going on. But, I bet he inspired them for the rest of their careers. He still does that to people today. If you want a sample of the Feynman magic this is a tough place to start. But do find a way to start.

Feynman's proof of the law of ellipses.......2007-02-04

First we see that planets sweep out equal areas in equal times, following Newton's easy proof. Now to prove that planets move in ellipses. Cut the orbit into infinitesimal, equiangular pieces (as seen from the sun). Each little piece of the orbit corresponds to the velocity vector at that point. Draw a velocity diagram by moving all of these velocity vectors so that they have a common origin point. Obviously, as we move around the orbit, the velocity vector will make one revolution around the origin. In fact, it will trace out a circle, as we shall now prove. The orbit is cut into infinitesimal triangles with equal angles at the sun, so clearly these triangles are similar with a scaling factor r, i.e. an area scaling factor r^2. But time is the same as area, so time also varies as r^2. The change in velocity in one of these pieces is force*time=(1/r^2)*(r^2)=independent of r, so the dv steps in the velocity diagram are all of equal size, and because of the equiangular division they all make equal angles with each other (dv parallel to PS), so the velocity vector does indeed trace out a circle, and the equiangular division of the orbit as seen from the sun translates to an equiangular division of this circle as seen from its center. Of course, the center of the circle is not the origin of the velocity vectors; in particular, the velocity vector going through the center of the circle is the longest velocity vector, so it corresponds to the position on the orbit closest to the sun (as is obvious by the law of equal areas). If we turn the orbit diagram so that this position is straight to the right of the sun, then the longest arrow in the velocity diagram points straight up, since the velocity vector drawn in the orbit diagram will of course be parallel to the tangent to the orbit. When we have advanced a given angle beyond this starting point on the orbit (as seen from the sun), the corresponding velocity vector (i.e. the tangent to the orbit at this point) is found by advancing the same angle in the velocity diagram (as seen from the center of the circle) and connecting this boundary point with the origin of the velocity vectors, and conversely. So the velocity diagram contains complete information about the tangents of the orbit, so it contains complete information about the orbit up to scaling. So the problem becomes: for any velocity diagram, to recreate the orbit. To do this we turn the velocity diagram 90 degrees to the right. To recreate the orbit we must now find a curve that is always perpendicular to the velocity vectors. This can be done as follows. For any point p on the circumference of the velocity diagram circle, draw the line connecting it to the origin O of the velocity vectors and the line connecting it to the center C of the circle. Mark the point P where the perpendicular bisector of Op cuts Cp as a point on the orbit. Now we prove that the orbit generated in this way, as p moves around the circle, is an ellipse (we assume O to be inside the circle; if it was on the boundary the orbit would be a parabola, etc.). The perpendicular bisector cuts the triangle OPp into congruent halves (SAS), making OP=Pp, so CP+OP=CP+Pp=radius of the circle=independent of p, so P traces out an ellipse with foci C and O, and the perpendicular bisector is tangent to this ellipse (because all its other points are outside of the ellipse because they have greater sum of distances to the foci), as required. QED.

Lucid explanation of Feynman's proof of the law of ellipses.......2003-09-11

The book first walks you through the works of Copernicus, Galileo, Brahe and Kepler. Then it gives a brief account of Feynman's life and his work. Then, through numerous diagrams, the authors clearly explain Feynman's ingenious proof of the law of ellipses. Finally, the book presents Feynman's lecture "The Motion of Planets Around the Sun".

It is amazing how Feynman, starting on the lines of Newton, and then not being able to follow Newton's reasoning, devised a different but elegant proof of the law of ellipses.

An Entertaining And Captivating Lecture.......2003-04-04

This Review refers to the paperback edition of Feynman's Lost Lecture: The Motion of Planets Around the Sun with audio CD.

The title of Goodstein's book, Feynman's Lost Lecture, may be a bit misleading in terms of the overall content. The book is, in truth, mainly an explanation of the elliptic patterns performed by the planets, among other things, that an unpublished Feynman lecture originally referred to (although the lecture is included in text and on CD, the lecture is only a fraction of the overall book). Goodstein provides a geometrical means of explaining elliptical patterns that even a non-physicist will find easily comprehensible, especially considering the frequency of companion diagrams. The book also includes a rather unique introduction providing a brief biography of Feynman along with the author's personal experiences related to the well-known physicist. An unexpected, but greatly appreciated, addition is Feynman's original notes regarding his lecture contained in the back of the book.

Feynman's Lost Lecture details how to use geometric proofs to find answers to problems such as the speed of a planet when in motion around the sun and how to prove geometrically that an object is an ellipse. The author properly explains and demonstrates these concepts throughout the book via written and visual examples.

Goodstein presents the topics in such a fashion that the reader can easily try for himself\herself the idea portrayed. This is generally due to a generous selection of diagrams and exemplary situations, which properly convey the ideas that Goodstein presents (although it would probably be much more beneficial if more of the diagrams accompanied Feynman's actual lecture). The main text is also of a form easily understood and more than adequately conveys the topic that the author presents. However, the literary style is slightly lacking - in that it often becomes a bit informal in description and detail.

Overall, the literary shortcomings do not interfere with the author's ability to convey the topic and makes for a rather interesting read. Yet another above-par lecture accompanied by a surprisingly above-par explanation, Feynman's Lost Lecture: The Motion of Planets Around the Sun is more than worth it's price and should be a welcome addition to any reader's (both physicists and non-physicists alike) personal library.

authors create a labour of love for Feynman.......2002-07-22

This book is a labour of love by Judith and David Goodstein for their friend Richard Feynman. I really enjoyed the revelations of the human side of the great physicist, especially the 20 page reminiscene by David Goodstein (a fellow physicist at cal tech) and Feynman's sometimes gruff answers to questions after the lecture. A different view of the human side of Feynman than what you read in "Surely, you're joking". I found the technical side of the book even more rewarding (see next paragraph) but be warned: this is pretty intense geometry and logic - I have a hard time imagining anyone without at least a couple years of post secondary math or physics or engineering following all the arguments.

But if you have the background and patience, it's some pretty cool stuff. Like many folks, I learned planetary dynamics using calculus, not geometry, and so this was my first exposure to the elegant relationship between velocity diagrams and orbits. While Feynman's lecture is somewhat unorganized and not entirely clear, the book does a great job filling in the blanks. There are certainly some rough spots (way too much time on the initial simple properties of ellipses, the argument connecting Kepler's third law to the law of gravitation is not clear, and more) but anyone with sufficient background willing to invest a few hours will be able to get past these minor problems. I kind of like how the pace accelerates to a ridiculous level by the end, leaving you to pretty much work out all the hard details of Rutherford's law of scattering for yourself.

Book Description

If you've begun programming using Microsoft's .NET Framework, you've discovered a lot of new and improved functionality. But, more than likely, you've also discovered a lot of missing functionality. Indeed, a third of the functions supported by the old Win32 API are not yet supported by .NET. Although you may not at first notice the loss of Win32 API functionality in .NET, the more you program, the more you'll realize how essential it is. As a programmer, you will not want to do without these solutions.

.NET Framework Solutions: In Search of the Lost Win32 API is one more thing you can't do without: a complete guide to your options for dealing with the functionality missing from .NET. As you'll learn, some functions are handily situated within Visual Basic or C#. In most cases, however, you'll need to access the old Win32 API from the .NET Framework. This is demanding work, but this book makes it easy, walking you through every step and paying special attention to the work of managing memory manually--the most error-prone part of the process.

The topics covered inside are as varied as the missing functionality: direct hardware access, low-level security control, certain aspects of OS access, support for multimedia and utilities, and DirectX. You also get hard-to-find information on COM access, plus a collection of examples--dealing with DirectX and the MMC Snap-ins--that unite COM and Win32 access in especially illuminating ways.

Over time, you can expect to see the .NET Framework expanded to include much of what it now lacks. But your programming tasks can't wait, and .NET Framework Solutions makes you productive--today.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent companion piece to Adam Nathan's bible..........2004-08-18

If you are doing .NET -> Native interop., this book should pretty have almost all that you need. Note that it does not cover COM (RCW) interop in that much detail and does not talk about CCW (COM -> .NET). However, the coverage of MarshalAs() and the clever examples that show how to deal with the complex DirectX structures are alone worth the price of admission.

What I liked best was the author didn't take the cop out solution (managed C++) unless it was absolutely necessary. Most of the code examples in the book are in C# and this might be of some concern to the VB.NET programmers. The chapters are well organized and there's an appendix with 50+ good tips on PInvoke. If you are still struggling with your PInvoke interop problem after reading this book, it's time to bring out the heavy weight (Adam Nathan's bible) -- good luck!!!

Atul

Excellent guide to get started using the Win32 API w/ .NET.......2004-03-28

I am an intermediate programmer, who in the past, has done some Visual Basic 6 and Win32 API integration programming. After learning VB.NET and C#, I found that the .NET Framework was missing some functionality of the Win32 API, which surprised me a little since Microsoft is really pushing .NET as the "API" of choice for developers.

I agree with the book that the .NET Framework is mostly targeted at business developers and the Internet for B2B and B2C applications, as well as internal Enterprise applications. Having said that, I have found the .NET framework lacking, and as the author points out, most likely due to how young it is in comparison to the Win32 API.

This book will get you up and running with making those Win32 API calls when you can't find that same functionality duplicated in the .NET Framework. There isn't much documentation on this subject matter on MSDN or the web (searching on Google), so this is pretty much it. The author did a great job, however, at times, the examples were a little light or topics weren't explained as thoroughly as they should have been. For example, the author will tell you what data type he used in place of a native Win32 data type, but doesn't clearly explain his reasoning for the choice. But other than that small complaint, this book is a must have for any .NET developer.

This book Rocks.......2003-08-22

Let's face it, .NEt is really cool, but it isn't a finished product. For everything else, there's this book. He has some Great examples and explains everything amazingly well. I'm a book junkie and this is definitely one of the best books I've come across recently. I think this book would be a tremendous asset to anyone who wants to learn how to get around .NET's current limitations.

A Very Good Resource.......2003-07-20

.Net Framework Solutions is a very useful resource for those .Net developers (using C# or VB.Net) who want to access the Win32 api from their .Net programs.A no of working examples (with source code available on accompanying CD) and lucid writing style makes this book a pleasure to read and can be very useful to avoid the traps in calling Win32 API. This book assures that you are not stuck with some problem because the .Net Framework does not provide support(which still lacks support for a no of Win32 APIs.)

Great book overall........2003-05-22

This is a great book for developers seeking to understand how to translate C++ datatypes in the Win32 API functions into C# and VB.NET. It's not in-depth like Dan Appleman's VB's Guide to the Win32 API in past years, but it's the first of its' kind for .NET. My only wish is that the author not have spent so much time on DirectX and instead provided more general examples of other API calls. DirectX coverage should have been left for another book aimed specifically at that technology.

The Lost Art of Drawing the Line: How Fairness Went Too Far

Average customer rating:

Howard Goes Too Far
Excellent book with some horrid editorial aspects.
A book that will really make you think
Gets you thinking
Great book

The Lost Art of Drawing the Line: How Fairness Went Too Far
Philip K. Howard
Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0375504222
Release Date: 2001-04-24

Amazon.com

Author Philip K. Howard returns with the same storytelling style and supreme reasonableness that made his first book, The Death of Common Sense, such a smash hit in 1995. He begins The Lost Art of Drawing the Line by noting the damage predatory litigation has done to the communal fabric of the United States: "Social relations in America, far from steadied by law's sure hand, are a tangle of frayed legal nerves." He tells how seesaws have started to vanish from playgrounds, how teachers are banned from touching students, and how emergency-room staff are blocked from attending to patients off hospital grounds--even if they can see them bleeding to death just 30 feet away. These aren't just speculations, a parade of hypothetical horror stories--they are actual trends and events that Howard describes and documents. The ability to weave dozens of anecdotes like these into his narrative is one of Howard's great strengths, and it allows him to make important points in entertaining ways.

Yet the book is much more than a collection of outrageous stories or a mere broadside against the legal system--though the legal system does come in for plenty of criticism. Instead, it's a meditation on the meaning of freedom, why freedom cannot exist outside of authority, and why individuals in positions of authority should have the ability to make decisions based on sound judgment. There is a temptation to secure liberty by restricting authority through the law, but this can be overdone, and it carries a high price: "Put law or any other formal construct in the middle of daily dealings, and people will start looking to the law instead of to one another." Then things get much worse: "The more our common institutions fail us, the more Americans want to limit their authority. Through a downward cycle of distrust, legal controls, [and] worse failure ... we drive Americans' governing institutions further into the bureaucratic maw." That is a terrible place to be, where no one is held accountable and antisocial behavior rules. And it has nothing at all to do with freedom. --John J. Miller

Book Description

The Lost Art of Drawing the Line will appall and irritate — and entertain — readers every bit as much as Philip Howard’s first book. Why is it that no one can fix the schools? Why do ordinary judgements fill doctors with fear? Why are seesaws disappearing from playgrounds? Why has a wave of selfish people overtaken America?

In our effort to protect the individual against unfair decisions, we have created a society where no one’s in charge of anything. Silly lawsuits strike fear in our hearts because judges don’t think they have the authority to dismiss them. Inner-city schools are filthy and mired in a cycle of incompetence because no one has the authority to decide who’s doing the job and who’s not.

When no one’s in charge, we all lose our link to the common good. When principals lack authority over schools, of what use are the parents’ views? When no one can judge right and wrong, why not be as selfish as you can be? Philip Howard traces our well-meaning effort to protect individuals through the twentieth century, with the unintended result that we have lost much of our individual freedom.

Buttressed with scores of stories that make you want to collar the next self-centered jerk or hapless bureaucrat, The Lost Art of Drawing the Line demonstrates once again that Philip Howard is “trying to drive us all sane.”

Customer Reviews:

Howard Goes Too Far.......2006-10-20

Howard's previous effort, "Death of Common Sense: How Law is Suffocating America," was spot-on. This one, unfortunately, takes the misguided and anti-liberty view that our courts are supposed to make law, rather than decide its legality.

Howard correctly excoriates the judicial approach which examines laws in anal-rententive detail, which finds "hidden meaning" where there plainly is none. He correctly prefers the precepts of common law over the intrusive restrictions of legislation. He believes judges should have the power to simply throw out obviously ridiculous cases. Yet, Howard goes too far, and has nothing but praise for the idea that judges should be able to use their "superior abilities" to make life decisions for us poor, simple regular folks.

He assumes that judges are the wisest members of society, and loves the idea that they are often appointed for life, which supposedly leaves them free to consider long term views. He wholly embraces the idea that judges should make law for the benefit of society, that they should decide social issues for our own good. (A typical example found in the book is his adulation of the anti-property rights Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, an elitist and moral relativist. In a case Howard highlights, Holmes ruled that a statute which restricted the workday of bakery employees "for their own safety" to ten hours was legal. Fortunately, the rest of the court voted against him, which Howard laments. Of course, there is nothing in the Constitution allowing the government to restrict workers' hours, nothing which allows any government interference in business practices; any attempt to do so is a monstrous "stretching" of the document and an assault on liberty. Yet Holmes is lauded by Howard for his efforts at social intervention.)

Essentially, Howard wants judges to run the country, because they are just so darn smart.

Excellent book with some horrid editorial aspects........2004-07-12

Philip K. Howard, The Collapse of the Common Good (Ballantine, 2001)

Howard's first book, The Death of Common Sense, should be required reading in high schools and law schools across the nation. Instead, it's supported by a select few and most of the country has never heard of it, despite our best efforts. So Howard releases another book, and I pick it up.

The Collapse of the Common Good takes much the same refrain as The Death of Common Sense, but turns its focus from governmental process to the fallacy of individual rights. What is important here is not what Howard says (which is, naturally, common sense), but in how he says it. His arguments are persuasive and worded so that the average joe can understand what Howard is on about. As with The Death of Common Sense, this is a book that should be required reading.

I do have one problem with the book, and that is the way that the endnotes are handled. Endnotes (as opposed to footnotes) are annoying enough, and publishers should realize that the endnote is archaic (now that students have access to computers, footnotes are easily achieved by even college freshmen; the use of endnotes by professional book publishers looks even more amateur), but The Collapse of the Common Good takes this annoyance to a whole new level by not including endnote numbers in the text; the exhaustive section of endnotes has them referred to only by page number. Perhaps I should have said "exhausting" endnote section. The complete unprofessionalism of the way what should have been footnotes are handled loses the book a full point.

Other than that, though, another must-read from Howard. I think I'm going to start giving them as christmas gifts, and keep giving them until people get the message. ****

A book that will really make you think.......2004-02-06

As an immigrant to the US (from Mexico), one of the hardest things for me to get used to was the skewed sense of freedom and entitlement that is sometimes expressed in this country. On my own I had been trying to come to grips with the ideas of extreme lawsuits, political correctness, and limits on authority. While I'm in favor of the basic ideas expressed in all these principles, I constantly get a feeling that many people don't understand the true meaning of their rights and simply abused their privileges.

This book validated my beliefs, but more importantly, helped me to better understand how we have come to act this way. It also helped me express all my feelings about this subject in a simple way: Our over emphasis on our individual freedoms and (supposed) entitlements is putting in jeopardy our common good, and we are ultimately hurting ourselves.

I think this book should be read by anyone who wants to be a true contributor to the common good.

Gets you thinking.......2003-12-02

I thought this book was an easy read. Howard does his best to light a fire under you to get you thinking. People are so worried about their individual rights, common sense gets thrown out with the bath water!!! This is a good motivational book for any elected official to read. I actually read this book for an assignment, and the book opened my eyes on really how inhumane or shallow our culture is becoming.

Great book.......2003-02-19

Every politician, every lawyer, every judge, and especially every citizen in America should read this book. It explains clearly and concisely how bad laws and frivolous lawsuits are undermining our country. Everything has to have warning labels, everything has to be dumbed down, anything remotely dangerous (such as the teeter-totter or playground slide) has to be eliminated, and teachers aren't allowed to punish bad kids for fear of being sued. Government unions make it impossible to fire incompetent workers, and anti-discrimination laws cause the very discrimination that they are supposed to prevent. After reading this book, you will understand better why government, corporations, and society are not working as good as they should. How can they, with the guillotine of potential lawsuits hanging over our heads?

Restoring the Lost Constitution: The Presumption of Liberty

Average customer rating:

innovative and interesting
Yes Virginia, there is a constitution
Head & Shoulders above all other Constitutional Scholars
Splendid
Toward a jurisprudence of original meaning

Restoring the Lost Constitution: The Presumption of Liberty
Randy E. Barnett
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0691123764

Book Description

The U.S. Constitution found in school textbooks and under glass in Washington is not the one enforced today by the Supreme Court. In Restoring the Lost Constitution, Randy Barnett argues that since the nation's founding, but especially since the 1930s, the courts have been cutting holes in the original Constitution and its amendments to eliminate the parts that protect liberty from the power of government. From the Commerce Clause, to the Necessary and Proper Clause, to the Ninth and Tenth Amendments, to the Privileges or Immunities Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, the Supreme Court has rendered each of these provisions toothless. In the process, the written Constitution has been lost.

Barnett establishes the original meaning of these lost clauses and offers a practical way to restore them to their central role in constraining government: adopting a "presumption of liberty" to give the benefit of the doubt to citizens when laws restrict their rightful exercises of liberty. He also provides a new, realistic and philosophically rigorous theory of constitutional legitimacy that justifies both interpreting the Constitution according to its original meaning and, where that meaning is vague or open-ended, construing it so as to better protect the rights retained by the people.

As clearly argued as it is insightful and provocative, Restoring the Lost Constitution forcefully disputes the conventional wisdom, posing a powerful challenge to which others must now respond.

Customer Reviews:

innovative and interesting.......2007-04-03

I found this book very enjoyable as well as informative. I learned more from this book than I did from an enitre semester of constitutional law in law school. Barnett has a way of brillantly explaining a case, good and bad, like no one else could. He made me look at decisions, which I have always assumed were correct, in an entirely new way. For example, his anaylsis of McCulloh v. Maryland really demonstrated the flaws of Chief Justice Marshall's logic. His historical anaylsis is vivid, entertaining, and educational. However, I did find some flaws in his research. He doesn't present both sides of the issue. Espically concering the 9th Amendment, there is strong evidence for a multitude of meanings. Yet he only presents his own, and does not adequately expalin why he's is superior. His interpretation of the commerce clause suffers the same problem. He concludes, rather quickly, that commerece only includes economic actvities. The problem with this is it is directly contradicted by prominent constitutional scholar ahkil Amar. Amar argues that commerce is the more general relations between the enities stated in Art. 1 Clause 8. This interpretation expalins the power the federal government has over tribes. I do not see how Barnett's interpretation explain this power, especially since Barnett makes it very clear that he does not believe the federal government has inherent power. It's a major flaw in this otherwise brillant book. Finally, his "presumption of liberty" might be too drasitic of a change for the American public to take and compromise the crediabilty of the court. However, his arguement that his method would add to the court's crediabilty is fairly convicing. I would say that I like the book despite the flaws, but in truth, I like the book largely because of the flaws.

Yes Virginia, there is a constitution .......2006-08-30

In this excellent book, an academic page turner, Barnett resurrects and reconstructs the commerce, necessary and proper clause and the ninth amendment and the privileges and immunities clauses as meaningful, judicially enforceable restrictions on
governmental powers. Barnett takes rights seriously and points out that the Bill of Rights is merely the tip of an actually enacted iceberg of rights that the courts are bound by the constitution to enforce--but do not. Barnett calls on courts to do their duty by these clauses and points out that the refusal of courts, to meaningfully protect rights in the name of judicial restraint is anything but. Barnett exposes the narrowness of the current debate between so called judicial conservatives and judicial liberals by pointing out that all now subscribe to a much narrower definition of rights that the constitution actually provides. For Barnett much of importance in the constitution has simply been discarded by the courts because it gets in the way of the kind of government people now think they want. The great service of Barnett's book is that by showing what has been lost or actually deliberately thrown away he shows the way back if we choose to take it. The larger question is not only whether we should take rights as seriously as the framers but whether we should take written constitutions as seriously as they did as absolutely essential to the preservation of liberties.

Head & Shoulders above all other Constitutional Scholars.......2006-01-01

Having read most of the current batch of constitutional scholars, and while respectful of their opinions, I believe that none reach the level of Barnett's understanding of the Constitution and the importance his thesis is to all Americans if we want to protect our freedoms from those internally who would deny we even possess rights as individuals.

Barnett starts off by providing a strong, though subjective, philospohical basis for the legitimacy of government power over citizens claiming they are truly free. Because this is the only subjective topic reviewed in the book, I've been striving since he published this book to find evidence that rationally or empirically defeats his thesis, I've found none nor have I found anyone with a superior thesis, which is, paraphrased: Legitimate government power over a free populace acheives legitimate consent only as long as its power protects the greater rights of its populace over the lesser rights of others. For example, police power protecting citizens' property against those that would steal other's property.

Barnett goes on to make a bullet-proof case that original meaning is the only legitimate interpretative approach and using that approach, what does the constitution mean, especially in terms of what rights we reserve and what powers to gov't have we granted.

Constitutionalist theorists like Bork who claim originalist roots that claim we need to use framer intent as filtered by him because the framers didn't provide ample evidence of their meaning is smashed by Barnett. Not only does Barnett provide convincing empirical evidence of the original meaning of the Constitution and many of its important principles and clauses; Barnett even provides ample evidence of the meaning as interpreted by the State Ratifying committees and the understanding by the populace as expressed in the newspapers of the day. I won't divulge here what Barnett finds since i highly recommend purchasing the book and finding out for yourselves.

While reviewing the original meaning of the constitution, Barnett provides a surprising twist, he provides very few modern cases that compare the court's rulings to the original meaning. For me at least, that provided me with little chance to stereotype Barnett into an ideological camp. I found this initially frustrating because it forced me during the reading of this section of the book to spend more thinking time understanding his points, but at the end of this section, I was rewarded by embracing the concepts he promotes on their merit by not allowing me to filter his arguments through my own ideological prism.

The end of the book does have Barnett reviewing many modern consitutional issues and applying the original meaning as found by Barnett against these cases. The reader will be surpised when media pundits label Barnett as a conservative scholar, as he often is, when in fact his thesis easily destroys any justicification social conservatives have to leverage government power over the rights we reserve as free people.

The reader will also be surprised as to why Democrats don't embrace these concepts more since their political platform to protect individual rights is so well supported by Barnett's findings when studying our founding. I can only speculate that by embracing Barnett's positions, the Democrats would have to fight to increase government power through constitututional amendments to legitimatize regulatory power to protect the environment or business beyond commerce. My only criticism of his book is that he didn't address the Roe and Casey rulings, where I would be most interested in understanding his position - I can only speculate that he resisted commenting in order to not be stereotyped and labeled.

In summary, if you buy one book to better understand the current culture war over the legitimate rights of citizens relative to the granted power we've extended government, this is the book. If you are a dedicated student of constitutional law, than I guarantee this book will become of the most valuable books in your collection - Barnett is that good.

Splendid.......2005-09-12

"Imagine holding up a copy of the Constitution and seeing empty holes in the parchment where these passages once appeared-or seeing ink blots over them."

In the preface, Professor Barnett describes his disillusionment with the United States Constitution, how it drove him away from the field of constitutional law, and then describes how he was brought back. The early chapters are an attempt to bring the reader back with him. Borrowing the arguments of Lysander Spooner, a 19th century abolitionist, he proceeds to prove the Constitution illegitimate on traditional grounds and then builds it up again on a new foundation, the "Presumption of Liberty." The presumption of liberty is the antipode of the now-favored method of judicial review, the presumption of constitutionality (in short, when challenging legislation, the burden lies on the individual to prove that legislation is unconstitutional, and not on the government to prove that it is not). Drawing on theories of natural rights, he proposes a method of constitutional "legitimation."

After this prelude, Barnett goes on to concretely defend originalism (specifically, "original meaning" originalism, as opposed to "original intent": a dichotomy well explicated) as an attractive constitutional theory of interpretation, against critics ranging from Robert Bork to New Deal liberals. The groundwork laid, the major work of the book commences: discovery of the original meaning of the Constitution, or at least many of its pertinent parts, including most prominently the (forgotten) Ninth Amendment, the Fourteenth Amendment, the Interstate Commerce Clause, and the Necessary and Proper Clause. The conclusion will be unsurprising to many: the original meaning of the Constitution has been grossly distorted. In his words:

"For some political agendas to advance, the heart of the Constitution must be excised, and so it has been, clause by inconvenient clause, until the Constitution has been distorted and lost."

Throughout, Barnett writes accessibly and lucidly. Even those parts of the book one would expect to be most dry--the analysis of constitutional clauses by usage of contemporary sources, including dictionaries, issues of The Federalist, and period newspapers--vibrate. Despite the libertarian undercurrent, the book is never partisan: indeed, great pains seem to be taken to invite readers of all political stripes to come along. Only in the conclusion does one begin to sense the great weight of what's been written, and--in my case--feel the gratitude towards the author for writing such an interesting, excellent, and--certainly--heroic book.

Toward a jurisprudence of original meaning.......2005-03-05

What should we do with the Constitution? In this excellent work, Randy E. Barnett proposes a predominantly libertarian answer to that question. (I say 'predominantly' because Barnett is quite clear-eyed and honest in his recognition of the handful of nonlibertarian elements in the document.)

Barnett initially addresses the question why we should consider ourselves bound by the Constitution at all, since the idea that it really speaks for every single one of 'the People' for all time is clearly a fiction. His answer will surprise everyone but libertarians: we should regard ourselves as bound by the Constitution because, insofar as, and so long as it is used to enact those laws that preserve and protect our liberty rights.

On this foundation Barnett develops a theory of Constitutional interpretation based on 'original meaning' (carefully distinguished from 'original intent' as originally defended by Bork and Meese). The heart of his thesis is that, wherever possible, we ought to prefer a reading that comports with the public understanding of the Constitution at the time it was ratified (which may not, of course, be a precise match for the 'intent' of the framers). He has James Madison on his side here. (Of course a similar argument applies to the various Amendments as of the times _they_ were ratified, so Barnett's 'original meaning' isn't a haven for those who want to undo the Fourteenth Amendment.)

Barnett then applies this interpretive approach to the judicial power in order to demonstrate that judicial review -- specifically including the power to nullify unconstitutional laws -- was part of the original understanding of this power. This chapter is quite well argued and, in my view, altogether conclusive on the issue. It's also, unfortunately, quite necessary, because there are people calling themselves 'conservatives' who seem to think judicial review was conjured out of the ether in _Marbury v. Madison_ (1803). (Mark Levin's recent _Men In Black_, for example, is hopelessly muddled on this issue, as Levin fails to distinguish carefully among judicial review, a judicial veto, and judicial supremacy. See my review of that book for further criticism.)

Having established that judicial review is part of the original Constitutional scheme (and part of the Constitutional meaning of 'due process'), Barnett then applies his original-meaning methodology to determine just how the Supreme Court ought to interpret various portions of the Constitution in reviewing the legitimacy of legislative enactments. The Necessary and Proper Clause turns out, on his analysis, to delegate to Congress only the power to enact legislation strictly requisite for the exercise of its enumerated powers ('necessary'), and only to the extent that such legislation does not infringe liberty rights ('proper'). The Fourteenth Amendment's Privileges or Immunities Clause turns out to bind state governments to the entire Bill of Rights. (See Michael Kent Curtis's excellent _No State Shall Abridge_ for a fine analysis that reaches the same conclusion.) And the Ninth Amendment turns out to protect all liberty rights of any kind, whether enumerated or not.

Barnett is then able to arrive, in consequence, at his central thesis: the twentieth century's 'presumption of constitutionality' should be reversed, and the Supreme Court should conduct judicial review on the basis of a 'presumption of liberty'. Instead, that is, of presuming that (say) a piece of challenged Congressional legislation is Constitutional unless an opposing party can show otherwise, the initial burden should be on the government to show why such legislation _is_ 'necessary and proper'.

Barnett then applies his analysis to the Commerce Clause and the police powers of the states, concluding that the scope of each is far narrower than recent jurisprudence allows. A closing chapter looks at a few 'hard cases' (though hardly, of course, an exhaustive list).

The analysis is excellent throughout. As he did in _The Structure of Liberty_, Barnett has thrown down a gauntlet here and I can't imagine what a successful response might look like.

There are minor points I could nitpick. (For example, Rep. John Bingham, drafter of the original version of the Fourteenth Amendment, was from Ohio, not -- as Barnett says on p. 193 -- New York.) The index could also use a lot of work; a random spot-check turns up a number of problems. (For example, a reference to Richard Epstein that actually appears on p. ix is indexed for page xi; Michael Kent Curtis appears on pages 61, 62, 108, 115, 203, and 348 but is indexed only for p. 61; some references -- e.g. to Henry Veatch, whose excellent _For An Ontology of Morals_ Barnett cites on p. 83 -- aren't indexed at all; and a reference to Murray Rothbard on p. 346 is indexed for p. 246. And yes, 'anal-retentive' _does_ take a hyphen; why do you ask?)

More seriously, perhaps, I'd have liked to see a bit more analysis of 'hard cases' that are controversial even among those inclined toward libertarianism. Even on Barnett's understanding of the Ninth and Fourteenth Amendments (which I think is utterly correct), it's not clear that abortion falls within the scope of retained liberty rights (as the interests of another party are pretty obviously adversely affected). Even here, though, Barnett's analysis is of tremendous help in posing the question correctly, whatever one's views on the answer.

It's a brilliant book from start to finish and it's probably the single best volume of Constitutional legal theory currently available; naturally there's lots of really cool stuff in it that I haven't even begun to summarize here. It's also a wonderful antidote to the spate of recent 'conservative' Court-bashing literature that persistently misidentifies the problems and tosses out the Constitutional baby with the bathwater.

If the Constitution is of interest to you, don't miss this one. By the way, Barnett is also the coauthor of a brilliant _amicus curie_ brief submitted by the Institute for Justice in _Lawrence v. Texas_; look that up too.

Expecting Referrals: The Resurrection of a Lost Art

Average customer rating:

Great book for ALL businesses at all times
Good book to teach us a good attitude in referral generation

Expecting Referrals: The Resurrection of a Lost Art
Scott A. Kramnick
Manufacturer: Associates Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0963895311

Customer Reviews:

Great book for ALL businesses at all times.......2005-01-18

I read this book when it first came out...10+ years ago and then again last year. It's still as great a book now as it was then. It really helps set a good mind-set throughout an organization that referrals are crucial at any time in an organization's lifetime...especially when starting out.

I incorporated many of the ideas and here I am, 10 years later, doing very well and still asking for referrals right up front.

This is an easy-read. I recommend it to anyone who wants to get more business without trying too hard.

Good book to teach us a good attitude in referral generation.......2000-07-09

This book is a good book in teaching us a good attitude in referral generation. The main theme of this book is that you have to educate your prospect/client from the first time contact (maybo over the phone) to first appointment to closing that our business is only generated by referrals. The aurther, by his experience (he is one of the top insurance agent in U.S. for many years, only works in referral business), tells us that the client will help us if we really ask for referrals sincerely. This book to me is very practical and fundamental, no gimicks, no so-call "new-ideas". But it emphazises the very basic of the art of sales -- to give clients satisfactory service and ask for referrals sincerely and repeatedly. With the scripts and some follow-up forms, this stuff is helpful.

Everquest: Lost Dungeons of Norrath (Prima's Official Strategy Guide)

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Disappointed
time

Everquest: Lost Dungeons of Norrath (Prima's Official Strategy Guide)
Scruffy Productions
Manufacturer: Prima Games
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0761544305
Release Date: 2003-09-16

Book Description

Explore the New Worlds and Claim Your Destiny
·Vital information for both Legacy of Ykesha and Lost Dungeons of Norrath
·Complete coverage of the new features
·Extensive storyline behind the emergence of the new Froglok race and Troll history
·All Froglok class stats
·Maps for all Ykesha zones
·Crucial information on new monsters, spells, and tradeskill recipes

Customer Reviews:

Disappointed.......2004-09-28

I thought this book was about LDoN - first half of the book is about Frogglok race that was added by this expansion. LDoN material is mainly some lore information (useless) and LDoN maps. No help on getting Adventurer's Stone, information on LDoN gear, how Adventure Stone is upgraded, or other information on LDoN - WASTE of Money. About poorest strategy book I have ever purchased. Can get just as much information from reading posts on the Internet (which is what i had to resort to after reading this book).

time.......2004-08-15

its been a while i ordered this july 31st and its now augest 14th im waiting

Lost Ground: Welfare Reform, Poverty, and Beyond

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Lost Ground: Welfare Reform, Poverty, and Beyond
A very wide area of controversial issues
Another great book from AK Press

Lost Ground: Welfare Reform, Poverty, and Beyond

Manufacturer: South End Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0896086585

Book Description

In the mid-1980s, the popularity of Charles Murray's anti-welfare treatise Losing Ground signaled the rising influence of the right-wing critique of welfare. In Lost Ground: Welfare Reform, Poverty and Beyond, a respected array of social scientists buck the conservative trend established by Murray and his cohorts, exposing welfare reform as a sham and positing new strategies to end poverty.

Since the mid-1990s, when Bill Clinton betrayed his supporters on the left by signing welfare reform legislation, the United States has drastically restructured its national policies regarding basic state supports for the poor. Welfare reform legislation is up forreauthorization on the federal level and in 32 states in 2002, but evidence suggesting that welfare reform has created more problems thanit has solved is starting to mount. For example, studies marking the 5-year anniversary of welfare reform show that children forced off AFDC (Aid for Dependents and Children) are significantly less successful in school and more inclined toward violent and criminal behavior, even when their mothers have found employment.

The downside of welfare reform is documented in Lost Ground. And this anthology analyses welfare issues in the context of broad political shifts, including globalization, the end of the family wage, the sexual revolution, and the rise of black liberation, feminism, and multiculturalism. Contributors include Mimi Abramovitz, Willie Baptist, Mary Bricker-Jenkins, Linda Burnham, Linda Gordon, James Jennings, Gwendolyn Mink, Frances Fox Piven, Sanford Schram, Joe Soss and Lucie White.

Randy Albelda and Ann Withorn are professors at the University of Massachusetts in Boston. They have written several books and articles including Glass Ceilings and Bottomless Pits: Women's Work, Women's Poverty by Randy Albelda and Chris Tilly; and For Crying Out Loud: Women's Poverty in the United States, edited by Ann Withorn and DianeDujon.

Customer Reviews:

Lost Ground: Welfare Reform, Poverty, and Beyond.......2007-01-10

Compilation of many writers' summations of America's welfare policies and attitudes over the years, and how the Welfare Reform Act of 1996 adversely affected the poorest in our country. Very informative, but bogs down in the middle as several narratives are rather redundant. Be sure to read the last chapter!

A very wide area of controversial issues.......2002-10-08

Collaboratively compiled and edited by Randy Albelda (Economics, University of Massachusetts) and Ann Withorn (Social Policy, University of Massachusetts), Lost Ground: Welfare Reform, Poverty, And Beyond is a scholarly selection of impressive essays by a variety of learned authors on topics relating to American welfare policy. From the effects of globalization on the current system, to fallacies of welfare-to-work policies, to issues of the rights of women and people of color, Lost Ground covers a very wide area of controversial issues often conveniently ignored by today's too-eager politics. Lost Ground is a welcome and strongly recommended addition to academic reference collections and reading lists in the area of American social policy in general, and welfare reform in particular.

Another great book from AK Press.......2002-08-17

The downside of welfare reforn is well documented in this new anthology. Moreover, welfare issues are analyzed in the context of broad political shifts, including globalization, the end of the family wage, the sexual revolution, and rise of black liberation, feminism, and multiculturalism.

Average customer rating:

Lost in the System
SUPERB!
Intent is what matters
Not the only one....
A life overcome

Lost in the System
Lopez
Manufacturer: INGRAM BOOK COMPANY
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ORPHANS OF THE LIVING : Stories of America's Children in Foster Care

ASIN: 0684811995

Customer Reviews:

Lost in the System.......2006-07-24

As an adoptive mother, I found this book to be quite disturbing. Miss Charlotte plays out the "victim" quite well as she sits mired in her self-pity and demanding spirit. "I want what I want and when I want it!" her story screams out. Furthermore, why doesn't Charlotte dignify her adoptive parents by taking on their last name?

SUPERB!.......2005-01-07

This is Charlotte Lopez' (The best Miss Teen USA that has ever been represented!!!)autobiography telling about her life growing up "Lost in the System" of foster care and emerging triumphant as a beauty queen.

I remember watching the Miss Teen USA pageant in 1993 and watching Charlotte as she caught the hearts of the audience in her $37.00 evening gown. There was no way anyone else could have won that title. Charlotte doesn't reveal any pageant dirt in this book. What this book is about is her life in foster care and how she overcame the obstacles put before her to no longer be just another statistic "lost in the system". She succeeds brilliantly on all counts.

Charlotte, alas, is now a struggling actress with a few B pictures to her credit. One wishes that after such a triumphant success with promoting her advocacy on "foster care" that this would have been her mission in life instead of relegating herself to playing inconseqential parts in movies that don't make a mark. But Charlotte has already made her mark in this world. For those of us who remember, she will always be the beautiful young lady from Vermont who was crowned Miss Teen USA of 1993! Hopefully, one day, Charlotte will return to her advocacy in foster care! This book is superb!

Intent is what matters.......2001-07-21

This is not great literature, but it is a great accomplishment!

When i read this, i was angry, sympathetic, and resentful. Several years before Charlotte wrote her book, i had written a book about my experiences in 2 decades of state care without ever being adopted. I did not have the opportunity that the pageant brought to Charlotte in terms of national exposure and the deals that can result from that. I was angry because in reading the story in the context of my own life of abuse,neglect and bouncing around 5-600% more than Charlotte, her woes as a foster child seemed pretty lightweight to me. I was sympathetic because many of the observations she made were right on, only more amplified with greater instability or degree. And i was resentful that she had found some caring people such as the Scheps and the Wensley families. The Scheps sound like the kind of people i dreamed about and cried myself to sleep many a night until one day there were no more tears. All my grief was gone and i was numb.

But then i thought of the good Charlotte has done in using her exposure as a platform to heighten awareness of the issues of foster children. Writing a book such as Lost in the System is generally not a big profit taker, but anyone who walks away and gets something out of it in terms of understanding throwaway kids is one more ally in this forgotten corner of American society. It was painful for me to read some of the passages in this book , for it dredged long -forgotten feelings and this shows a shared quality of experience.

I have known persons such as Janet Henry and the enormous patience she must have. One must wonder how her life must be both gratifying and sad; gratified to help kids no one else will, and sad to bond with kids only to see them leave. The Wensleys impressed me a great deal for it must have been no small feat for them to show the humility needed to change their approach from strict Fundamentalist Protestantism to a more compassionate tone as evidenced by Charlotte's visits following their separation. I also understand fully the financial considerations the Wensleys faced, as while i was growing up foster parents had no reservations about making me feel unworthy of even food or clothes. Fortunately, Charlotte was spared this.

And when i read about the Scheps, i felt enormous gratitude to them for helping Charlotte realize her dream. I did not get that dream and i know the pain i have felt my whole life. Because the Scheps have more caring than the two of them can hold, they have truly changed Charlotte's life forever. I have seen many peers die, become drug addicts/dealers, prostitutes, absentee parents, prisoners and each time i saw it i saw some of me in them. In Charlotte i see the past i never had but by her sharing her story i got a glimpse into a life i wish i could have had and for a few hours i forgot. Knowing that there are people like the Scheps, the Wensleys, Janet Henry and Charlotte Lopez not forgetting to thank them reassures me there are still good people in the world.

Not the only one...........2000-08-05

Ken Grant of Methuen Mass. wrote a book in 1993 called "The Wanderer",about his experiences as a state ward and handicapped child survivor of the cancer epidemic in Woburn,Mass. He wrote of how state officials blocked his access to state records at every turn. But where he was blackballed and harassed by the state and federal governments, Lopez succeeded in getting her message out.

A life overcome.......2000-07-11

This book shows how one woman overcame a tragic past to make good and become a role model for others of similar background. It is amazing she has been able to do this, as Ken Grant wrote a similar work called "The Wanderer" but was blackballed because of it. There are many questions that come out of a book such as this: - are kids denied spiritual or religious exposure while in state care? - what are the demographics of kids in state care? - Does the Us govt view abandoned kids as a business and so have a vested interest in assuring that a steady flow of abandoned kids perpetuates?

The Lost World of Classical Legal Thought: Law and Ideology in America, 1886-1937

Average customer rating:

Interesting history of legal intellectual thought
A Must-Read for Lawyers

The Lost World of Classical Legal Thought: Law and Ideology in America, 1886-1937
William M. Wiecek
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0195118545

Book Description

This book examines the ideology of elite lawyers and judges from the Gilded Age through the New Deal. Between 1866 and 1937, a coherent outlook shaped the way the American bar understood the sources of law, the role of the courts, and the relationship between law and the larger society. William M. Wiecek explores this outlook--often called "legal orthodoxy" or "classical legal thought"--which assumed that law was apolitical, determinate, objective, and neutral. American classical legal thought was forged in the heat of the social crises that punctuated the late nineteenth century. Fearing labor unions, immigrants, and working people generally, American elites, including those on the bench and bar, sought ways to repress disorder and prevent political majorities from using democratic processes to redistribute wealth and power. Classical legal thought provided a rationale that assured the legitimacy of the extant distribution of society's resources. It enabled the legal suppression of unions and the subordination of workers to management's authority. As the twentieth-century U.S. economy grew in complexity, the antiregulatory, individualistic bias of classical legal thought became more and more distanced from reality. Brittle and dogmatic, legal ideology lost legitimacy in the eyes of both laypeople and ever-larger segments of the bar. It was at last abandoned in the "constitutional revolution of 1937", but--as Wiecek argues in this detailed analysis--nothing has arisen since to replace it as an explanation of what law is and why courts have such broad power in a democratic society.

Customer Reviews:

Interesting history of legal intellectual thought.......2006-01-28

Wiecek provides a much needed history of what he calls classical legal thought. Classicism conceptualized law as a neutral, objective system that emphasized individualism and hostility towards state paternalism. Wiecek traces this concept from its roots in antebellum America through the rise at the end of the 19th Century and its collapse in the 1920s and 30s. He explains how classicism dominated and then began to suffer from internal inconsistencies and external academic and judicial assaults, primarily from the legal realists who argued that law was not a neutral, scientific system. Ultimately, Wiecek argues that the collapse of legal classicism created a void; where once a unifying legal ideology stood, only confused fragments were left. Some, such as Frankfurter, embraced judicial restraint in an attempt to maximize democratic choices. Others have attempted to recreate some type of unifying structure, whether emphasizing history, constitutional structure, or moral philosophy, but all have failed.

I would strongly recommend this book for anyone (with reasonable legal knowledge) who wants to understand the ideology against which much of modern law still responds. Additionally, this book helps demonstrate the weakness of grand unifying theories and shows that often these theories are inextricably linked to particular policy choices. This book should be read in conjunction with Laura Kalman's The Strange Career of Legal Liberalism, which examines the post-war attempts to create a unifying theory to fill the void left by classicism's collapse and how these theories have tended to fail.

A Must-Read for Lawyers.......2000-12-04

Despite the date-span in the book's subtitle, this monograoh examines the full range of American legal history, in order to place in context the theoretical system that dominated American law just prior to the New Deal "revolution" that ushered in the dominant system of today. Any practicing lawyer will benefit immensely from Wiecek's explanation of the antecedents of the legal-realist outlook that most of us, consciously or unconsciously, now adhere to. The book is also cleanly and intelligently written, and draws on a broad range of legal and non-legal sources. Probably too technical for readers who are not lawyers or intellectual historians.

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