Gerard N. Magliocca's Books

The Heart of the Constitution

How the Bill of Rights Became the Bill of Rights

By: Gerard N. Magliocca

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The Heart of the Constitution

How the Bill of Rights Became the Bill of Rights

By: Gerard N. Magliocca

This is the untold story of the most celebrated part of the Constitution. Until the twentieth century, few Americans called the first ten constitutional amendments drafted by James Madison in 1789 and ratified by the states in 1791 the Bill of Rights. Even more surprising, when people finally started doing so between the Spanish-American War and World War II, the Bill of Rights was usually invoked to justify increasing rather than restricting the authority of the federal government. President Franklin D. Roosevelt played a key role in that development, first by using the Bill of Rights to justify the expansion of national regulation under the New Deal, and then by transforming the Bill of Rights into a patriotic rallying cry against Nazi Germany. It was only after the Cold War began that the Bill of Rights took on its modern form as the most powerful symbol of the limits on government power. These are just some of the revelations about the Bill of Rights in Gerard Magliocca's The Heart of the Constitution. For example, we are accustomed to seeing the Bill of Rights at the end of the Constitution, but Madison wanted to put them in the middle of the document. Why was his plan rejected and what impact did that have on constitutional law? Today we also venerate the first ten amendments as the Bill of Rights, but many Supreme Court opinions say that only the first eight or first nine amendments. Why was that and why did that change? The Bill of Rights that emerges from Magliocca's fresh historical examination is a living text that means something different for each generation and reflects the great ideas of the Constitution--individual freedom, democracy, states' rights, judicial review, and national power in time of crisis.

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249

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0190271604

ISBN 13

9780190271602

Andrew Jackson and the Constitution

The Rise and Fall of Generational Regimes

By: Gerard N. Magliocca

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Andrew Jackson and the Constitution

The Rise and Fall of Generational Regimes

By: Gerard N. Magliocca

What happens when the political ideas and constitutional interpretations of one generation are replaced by those of another? This process has occurred throughout American history down to the present day as "we the people" change our minds about how we govern ourselves. Depicting a monumental clash of generations, Gerard Magliocca reminds us once again how our Constitution remains a living document. Magliocca reinterprets the legal landmarks of the Jacksonian era to demonstrate how the meaning of the Constitution evolves in a cyclical and predictable fashion. He highlights the ideological battles fought by Jacksonian Democrats against Federalists and Republicans over states' rights, presidential authority, the scope of federal power, and other issues. By doing so he shows how presidential politics, Supreme Court decisions, and congressional maneuverings interweave, creating a recurrent pattern of constitutional change. Magliocca builds on the view that major changes in American political and constitutional development occur generationally-in roughly thirty-year intervals-and move from dominant regime to the emergence of a counter-regime. Focusing on a period largely neglected in studies of such change, he offers a lucid introduction to the political and legal history of the antebellum era while tracing Jackson's remarkable consolidation of power in the executive branch. The Jacksonian movement grew out of discontent over the growth of federal power and the protection given Native Americans at the expense of frontier whites, and Magliocca considers such issues to support his argument. He examines Jackson's defeat of the Bank of the United States, shows how his clash with the Marshall Court over the Cherokee "problem" in Worcester v. Georgia sparked the revival of abolitionist culture and foreshadowed the Fourteenth Amendment, and also offers a new look at Dred Scott, M'Culloch v. Maryland, judicial review, and presidential vetoes. His analysis shows how the interaction of reformers and conservatives drives change and how rough-and-tumble politics shapes our Republic more than the creativity of judicial decisions. Offering intriguing parallels between Jackson and George W. Bush regarding the scope of executive power, Magliocca has produced a rich synthesis of history, political science, and law that revives our understanding of an entire era and its controversies, while providing a model of constitutional law applicable to any period.

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Page Count

200

Publisher

University Press of Kansas

Published Date

ISBN 10

0700617868

ISBN 13

9780700617869

The Tragedy of William Jennings Bryan

Constitutional Law and the Politics of Backlash

By: Gerard N. Magliocca

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The Tragedy of William Jennings Bryan

Constitutional Law and the Politics of Backlash

By: Gerard N. Magliocca

Although Populist candidate William Jennings Bryan lost the presidential elections of 1896, 1900, and 1908, he was the most influential political figure of his era. In this astutely argued book, Gerard N. Magliocca explores how Bryan's effort to reach the White House energized conservatives across the nation and caused a transformation in constitutional law. Responding negatively to the Populist agenda, the Supreme Court established a host of new constitutional principles during the 1890s. Many of them proved long-lasting and highly consequential, including the "separate but equal" doctrine supporting racial segregation, the authorization of the use of force against striking workers, and the creation of the liberty of contract. The judicial backlash of the 1890s--the most powerful the United States has ever experienced--illustrates vividly the risks of seeking fundamental social change. Magliocca concludes by examining the lessons of the Populist experience for advocates of change in our own divisive times.

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270

Publisher

Yale University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0300153155

ISBN 13

9780300153156

The Heart of the Constitution

How the Bill of Rights Became the Bill of Rights

By: Gerard N. Magliocca

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The Heart of the Constitution

How the Bill of Rights Became the Bill of Rights

By: Gerard N. Magliocca

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249

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Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0190271604

ISBN 13

9780190271602

American Founding Son

John Bingham and the Invention of the Fourteenth Amendment

By: Gerard N. Magliocca

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American Founding Son

John Bingham and the Invention of the Fourteenth Amendment

By: Gerard N. Magliocca

John Bingham was the architect of the rebirth of the United States following the Civil War. A leading antislavery lawyer and congressman from Ohio, Bingham wrote the most important part of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees fundamental rights and equality to all Americans. He was also at the center of two of the greatest trials in history, giving the closing argument in the military prosecution of John Wilkes Booth’s co-conspirators for the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and in the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson. And more than any other man, Bingham played the key role in shaping the Union’s policy towards the occupied ex-Confederate States, with consequences that still haunt our politics. American Founding Son provides the most complete portrait yet of this remarkable statesman. Drawing on his personal letters and speeches, the book traces Bingham’s life from his humble roots in Pennsylvania through his career as a leader of the Republican Party. Gerard N. Magliocca argues that Bingham and his congressional colleagues transformed the Constitution that the Founding Fathers created, and did so with the same ingenuity that their forbears used to create a more perfect union in the 1780s. In this book, Magliocca restores Bingham to his rightful place as one of our great leaders.

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Page Count

306

Publisher

NYU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1479819913

ISBN 13

9781479819911

Washington's Heir

The Life of Justice Bushrod Washington

By: Gerard N. Magliocca

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Washington's Heir

The Life of Justice Bushrod Washington

By: Gerard N. Magliocca

The first biography of George Washington's extraordinary nephew, who inherited Mount Vernon and was Chief Justice John Marshall's right-hand man on the Supreme Court for nearly thirty years. George Washington's nephew and heir was a Supreme Court Justice for over thirty years and left an indelible mark on American law. Despite his remarkable life and notable lineage, he is unknown to most Americans because he cared more about establishing the rule of law than about personal glory. In Washington's Heir, Gerard N. Magliocca gives us the first published biography of Bushrod Washington, one of the most underrated Founding Fathers. Born in 1762, Justice Washington fought in the Revolutionary War, served in Virginia's ratifying convention for the Constitution, and was Chief Justice John Marshall's partner in establishing the authority of the Supreme Court. Though he could only see from one eye, Justice Washington wrote many landmark decisions defining the fundamental rights of citizens and the structure of the Constitution, including Corfield v. Coryell--an influential source for the Congress that proposed the Fourteenth Amendment. As George Washington's personal heir, Bushrod inherited both Mount Vernon and the family legacy of owning other people, one of whom was almost certainly his half-brother or nephew. Yet Justice Washington alone among the Founders was criticized by journalists for selling enslaved people and, in turn, issued a public defence of his actions that laid bare the hypocrisy and cruelty of slavery. An in-depth look at Justice Washington's extraordinary story that gives insight into his personal thoughts through his own secret journal, Washington's Heir sheds new light not only on George Washington, John Marshall, and the Constitution, but also on America's ongoing struggle to become a more perfect union.

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297

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0190947047

ISBN 13

9780190947040

Washington's Heir

The Life of Justice Bushrod Washington

By: Gerard N. Magliocca

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Washington's Heir

The Life of Justice Bushrod Washington

By: Gerard N. Magliocca

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Page Count

297

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Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0190947047

ISBN 13

9780190947040

American Founding Son

John Bingham and the Invention of the Fourteenth Amendment

By: Gerard N. Magliocca

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American Founding Son

John Bingham and the Invention of the Fourteenth Amendment

By: Gerard N. Magliocca

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Page Count

306

Publisher

NYU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1479819913

ISBN 13

9781479819911

The Tragedy of William Jennings Bryan

Constitutional Law and the Politics of Backlash

By: Gerard N. Magliocca

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The Tragedy of William Jennings Bryan

Constitutional Law and the Politics of Backlash

By: Gerard N. Magliocca

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Solve jigsaw puzzle

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Page Count

270

Publisher

Yale University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0300153155

ISBN 13

9780300153156

Book's by Gerard N. Magliocca

The Heart of the Constitution

The Heart of the Constitution

Andrew Jackson and the Constitution

Andrew Jackson and the Constitution

The Tragedy of William Jennings Bryan

The Tragedy of William Jennings Bryan

The Heart of the Constitution

The Heart of the Constitution

American Founding Son

American Founding Son

Washington's Heir

Washington's Heir

Washington's Heir

Washington's Heir

American Founding Son

American Founding Son

The Tragedy of William Jennings Bryan

The Tragedy of William Jennings Bryan

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