Oxford Handbook of the U.S. Constitution (Oxford Handbooks) - Hardcover

In analysing the multiple elements of this unique culture and their complex interplay along with the various contradictions generated by the operation of a constitution designed to prevent the rise of political parties, interest group politics, and an entrenched bureaucracy by those very same groups and institutions, the Oxford Handbook of the U.S. Constitution succeeds brilliantly. (Rainer Grote. Zeitschrift für ausländisches öffentliches Recht und Völkerrecht (ZaöRV))

This impressive tome, edited by distinguished and prolific law professors Tushnet (Harvard Law School), Graber (Univ. of Maryland's Francis King Carey School of Law), and Levinson (Univ. of Texas Law School, Austin) consists of an introduction and 47 concise, well-edited essays. Notable law professors, political scientists, historians, and other scholars from a wide variety of institutions offer summaries of existing scholarship on numerous issues, accompanied by footnotes and bibliographical information. The handbook will be an essential resource for those seeking balanced and informative introductions to broader, fundamental constitutional questions. (J. R. Vile, Middle Tennessee State University, Choice: US Politics)

The Oxford Handbook of the U.S. Constitution offers a comprehensive overview and introduction to the U.S. Constitution from the perspectives of history, political science, law, rights, and constitutional themes, while focusing on its development, structures, rights, and role in the U.S. political system and culture. This Handbook enables readers within and beyond the U.S. to develop a critical comprehension of the literature on the Constitution, along with accessible and up-to-date analysis.

The historical essays included in this Handbook cover the Constitution from 1620 right through the Reagan Revolution to the present. Essays on political science detail how contemporary citizens in the United States rely extensively on political parties, interest groups, and bureaucrats to operate a constitution designed to prevent the rise of parties, interest-group politics and an entrenched bureaucracy. The essays on law explore how contemporary citizens appear to expect and accept the exertions of power by a Supreme Court, whose members are increasingly disconnected from the world of practical politics. Essays on rights discuss how contemporary citizens living in a diverse multi-racial society seek guidance on the meaning of liberty and equality, from a Constitution designed for a society in which all politically relevant persons shared the same race, gender, religion and ethnicity. Lastly, the essays on themes explain how in a "globalized" world, people living in the United States can continue to be governed by a constitution originally meant for a society geographically separated from the rest of the "civilized world." Whether a return to the pristine constitutional institutions of the founding or a translation of these constitutional norms in the present is possible remains the central challenge of U.S. constitutionalism today.