Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
  1. Home
  2. Books
  3. Constructing Civil Liberties
  • Cited by 66
      • Show more authors
      • You may already have access via personal or institutional login
    • Select format
    • Publisher:
      Cambridge University Press
      Publication date:
      09 November 2009
      02 August 2004
      ISBN:
      9780511606809
      9780521811781
      9780521010559
      DOI:
      https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511606809
      Dimensions:
      (228 x 152 mm)
      Weight & Pages:
      0.76kg, 404 Pages
      Dimensions:
      (228 x 152 mm)
      Weight & Pages:
      0.528kg, 402 Pages
      • Subjects:
      Area Studies, American Studies, US Law, American Government, Politics and Policy, Law, Politics and International Relations
    You may already have access via personal or institutional login
    • Selected: Digital
    Add to cart View cart Buy from Cambridge.org
    Subjects:
    Area Studies, American Studies, US Law, American Government, Politics and Policy, Law, Politics and International Relations
    Information

    Book description

    The modern jurisprudence of civil liberties and civil rights is best understood, not as the application of principles to facts, but as a product of currents of progressive reformist political thought. This book demonstrates that rights of individuals in the criminal justice system, workplace, and school now identified with the essence of civil rights and liberties, were the end point of a layered succession of progressive-spirited ideological and political campaigns of statebuilding and reform. In questioning this vision of constitutional development, this book integrates the developmental paths of civil liberties law into an account of the rise of the modern state and the reformist political and intellectual movements that shaped and sustained it. In doing so, Constructing Civil Liberties provides a vivid, multi-layered, revisionist account of the genealogy of contemporary constitutional law and morals.

    Reviews

    ‘This book is an original, nuanced, and exquisitely-researched critique of the Whiggish ‘ideology of progress’ narrative that dominates post-New Deal scholarship on American politics, constitutional law and development, civil liberties and civil rights, and the Supreme Court. Kersch’s path-breaking alternative explanation of constitutional development will make this book an award-winner. It is a must read for political scientists, historians, legalists, the informed public, as well as for scholars of constitutional development – within and without the American context. I recommend it for use in graduate and undergraduate courses on American politics and political development, civil liberties and civil rights, constitutional law and politics, and comparative constitutional change.’

    Ronald Kahn - Oberlin College

    ‘Chronicling the ways in which the modern regime of progressive civil liberty and rights has entailed the submergence or marginalization of such traditional rights as economic liberty and property, Kersch shows how many of the forsaken rights are as worthy of moral consideration as the rights that superceded them. Rather than uncritically celebrating the ostensibly linear expansion of civil liberty and rights over the course of the twentieth century, Kersch makes a case for a more tragic view of historical development that recognizes the trade-offs and zero-sum choices inherent in the construction of any legal regime of rights. Based on copious and probing research, Kersch’s book will appeal to those interested in American legal and political development, civil liberties and rights, and the history of ideas. It should also be read by anyone who enjoys seeing reigning orthodoxies challenged by an insightful and serious thinker.’

    Donald Downs - University of Wisconsin

    ‘Ken Kersch adds an interesting new perspective to the study of American constitutional development. I found especially illuminating his treatment of late 19th century notions of civil liberties, but the entire book repays close study and will undoubtedly generate much discussion.’

    Sanford Levinson - University of Texas Law School

    Refine List

    Actions for selected content:

    Select all | Deselect all
    • View selected items
    • Export citations
    • Download PDF (zip)
    • Save to Kindle
    • Save to Dropbox
    • Save to Google Drive

    Save Search

    You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

    Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
    Cancel
    ×

    Contents

    Contents

    Metrics

    Altmetric attention score

    Full text views

    Total number of HTML views: 0
    Total number of PDF views: 0 *
    Loading metrics...

    Book summary page views

    Total views: 0 *
    Loading metrics...

    * Views captured on Cambridge Core between #date#. This data will be updated every 24 hours.

    Usage data cannot currently be displayed.

    Accessibility standard: Unknown

    Why this information is here

    This section outlines the accessibility features of this content - including support for screen readers, full keyboard navigation and high-contrast display options. This may not be relevant for you.

    Accessibility Information

    Accessibility compliance for the PDF of this book is currently unknown and may be updated in the future.