How Progressives Rewrote the Constitution
"Epstein is one of America's most brilliant scholars. In this little book, he is at the top of his form."--Alan Bock, The Orange County Register"Epstein provides an astonishingly detailed account of the reformation of the US Constitution in surprisingly few pages. He highlights every major court case that altered the original ideals of the Constitution ever so slightly, but that turned out in the end to land America drastically far from the sound political ideals with which it had begun. Using intricate logic he lays out a strong argument against the Progressives and an equally strong argument for the Old Court. For Americans, this book is a mandatory read"Economic Affairs"Just as we are being berated by his Chicago colleague Cass Sunstein for not completing FDR's social-democratic revolution by embracing a New Deal for speech and constitutionalizing welfare rights, here comes Richard Epstein inviting us to wonder whether the New Deal enterprise and the Progressive movement that preceeded it were not all a dreadful mistake. This is a challenging and amusing book -- Richard Epstein at the top of his game."Charles Fried, Professor of Law, Harvard University, Former U.S. Solicitor General"Epstein clearly explains how the Progressive prescription for curing society's shortcomings has caused untold harm to our polity. We live with their legal legacy today, which hamstrings the economy, intrudes unnecessarily into our private affairs and makes our society the most litigious on earth."Patrick Barron, The Bulletin