Selected Titles on
Law and Political Theory
The Verdict of Battle: The Law of Victory and the Making of Modern War
Today, war is considered a last resort for resolving disagreements. But a day of staged slaughter on the battlefield was once seen as a legitimate means of settling political disputes. James Whitman argues that pitched battle was essentially a trial with a lawful verdict. And when this contained form of battle ceased to exist, the law of victory gave way to the rule of unbridled force. The Verdict of Battle explains why the ritualized violence of the past was more effective than modern warfare in bringing carnage to an end, and why humanitarian laws that cling to a notion of war as evil have led to longer, more barbaric conflicts.
Lincoln’s Tragic Pragmatism: Lincoln, Douglas, and Moral Conflict
“Thoroughly informed by historical learning and philosophical sophistication, literary critic John Burt provides a detailed analysis of the Lincoln–Douglas debates in their original context, scrupulously fair to both parties. This is the most profound exploration of the enduring significance of Lincoln’s rhetoric since Harry Jaffa’s classic [Crisis of the House Divided] of 1959. A magnificent achievement.”
—Daniel Walker Howe, author of What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815–1848
Strength in Numbers: The Political Power of Weak Interests
Many consumers feel powerless in the face of big industry’s interests. And the dominant view of economic regulators (influenced by Mancur Olson’s 1965 classic The Logic of Collective Action) agrees with them. According to this view, diffuse interests like those of consumers are too difficult to organize and too weak to influence public policy, which is determined by the concentrated interests of industrial-strength players. Gunnar Trumbull makes the case that this view represents a misreading of both the historical record and the core logic of interest representation. Weak interests, he reveals, quite often emerge the victors in policy battles.
The Harm in Hate Speech
“[Waldron’s] book sheds light on a number of difficult issues, and occasionally exposes the difference between historical fact and fiction… He elegantly and convincingly advocates that our leaders should not only avoid the use of hate speech themselves, but also condemn its use by others… We should all do our best to preserve President Ford’s conception of America as a place where we can disagree without being disagreeable. An understanding of the arguments in Waldron’s book may help us to do so.
—John Paul Stevens, The New York Review of Books
In the Whirlwind: God and Humanity in Conflict
“Many of Burt’s arguments are enlightening and theologically sophisticated… Burt uses the Bible as a prism through which to reassess the modern obsession with analyzing and defining legitimate political power… Burt’s book is full of thought-provoking ideas and it goes to show that law professors can sometimes turn out to be accomplished and challenging biblical interpreters.”
—Jonathan Wright, The Catholic Herald
Dignity: Its History and Meaning
“Dignity deserves to be widely read, not only for its intrinsic interest, but also as a corrective to the habit of discussing such topics in abstraction from their social context. Whether or not one agrees with Rosen’s arguments, there can be no doubt he has widened our horizons.”
—Rae Langton, The Times Literary Supplement
Living Originalism
“With this book Jack Balkin has produced what might be described as an owner’s manual for the Constitution, revealing with painstaking care the many ways in which it can be read and interpreted. Balkin deftly shows how we can move past arguments over ‘living’ versus ‘originalist’ constitutionalism, to arrive at the welcome place where Americans can own and redeem the Constitution for themselves.”
—Dahlia Lithwick, Slate
Common Sense: A Political History
“Rosenfeld seeks to explain how the ‘common sense’ of the people became a touchstone of political wisdom and a ubiquitous catch-phrase in political debate across the Western world… She has excavated the rhetoric of common sense from an impressive number of sites and has shaped this diverse evidence into a smart and plausible narrative. She writes with verve… Rosenfeld warns us that common sense is sometimes just an honorific that we bestow upon our prejudices.”
—Jeffrey Collins, The Wall Street Journal
Justice for Hedgehogs
“In a sustained, profound, and richly textured argument that will, from now on, be essential to all debate on the matter, Ronald Dworkin makes the case for…the unity of value… We are in at the birth, here, of a modern philosophical classic, one of the essential works of contemporary thought. It is bound to be a major debate-changer, because even the many who will find much to disagree with—Dworkin, after all, disagrees with them in advance, and robustly—will not be able to ignore the challenges he poses. And out of the heat to come, much light will shine.”
—A.C. Grayling, The New York Review of Books
Creating Capabilities: The Human Development Approach
“Nussbaum looks at what it really means for a country to experience prosperity. Traditionally, a country’s economic well-being was measured by its gross domestic product. Nussbaum takes a more personal approach by focusing on how economic prosperity plays out in ordinary citizens’ lives… By demonstrating the philosophical underpinnings of this approach and how the theory plays out in the real world, Nussbaum makes a compelling case.”
—Carol J. Elsen, Library Journal
The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History
“The triumph of The Last Utopia is that it restores historical nuance, skepticism and context to a concept that, in the past 30 years, has played a large role in world affairs.”
—Brendan Simms, The Wall Street Journal
The Idea of Justice
An Economist Best Book of 2009 • A Globe and Mail Best Book of 2009 • A New Statesman Top Ten Book of the Decade
“[A] majestic book… Reading The Idea of Justice is like attending a master class in practical reasoning. You can’t help noticing you are engaging with a great, deeply pluralistic, mind… This is a monumental work.”
—Ziauddin Sardar, The Independent
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