THE SUPREME COURT IN THE AGE OF ROOSEVELT

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THE SUPREME COURT IN THE AGE OF ROOSEVELT

Name: THE SUPREME COURT IN THE AGE OF ROOSEVELT
Author: William E. Leuchtenburg
ISBN: 0-19-608613-9

ESSAYS ON THE CONSTITUTIONAL REVOLUTION

by William E. Leuchtenburg ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1995

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Elegant, if duplicative, essays by an eminent historian on how FDR's Supreme Court transformed the federal judiciary and reinvented the Constitution. In nine essays, most previously published, Leuchtenburg (History/Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; In the Shadow of FDR, 1983, etc.) traces the origins of FDR's ill-fated Court- packing plan to two relatively obscure cases decided by the Supreme Court in May 1935: the ``railway pension'' case, in which the youngest justice, Owen Roberts, sided with the elderly conservative majority to dispute Congress's power to pass social legislation under the Commerce Clause; and the case of ``Humphrey's Executor,'' in which a unanimous Court held that FDR had no right to fire the reactionary head of the Federal Trade Commission. These two cases convinced FDR that he needed younger, more liberal, and more deferential justices. So he and his advisors considered a variety of options, among them a constitutional amendment permitting him to pack the Court with an unspecified number of additional justices. Leuchtenburg captures the heady atmosphere of the FDR White House, as Attorney General Homer Cummings and various advisors submitted top-secret memoranda to FDR and conferred exhaustively on numerous proposed amendments. He also succeeds in portraying FDR as a brilliant, perverse, vindictive chief executive, who delighted in shocking his own administration, most memorably by nominating former KKK member Hugo Black to fill the first vacant seat on the Court. But Leuchtenburg spends too much time on public reaction to the court-packing scheme and not enough on the major cases and players. A more serious flaw is the failure to link the essays into a single narrative. In his preface, Leuchtenburg notes, somewhat disingenuously, that he has included redundant details ``so that readers will understand the context.'' But because the essays are presented chronologically, the book invites cover-to-cover reading, which becomes disjointed and repetitive. Individually, the essays are quite often accomplished, but they don't coalesce.

Pub Date: March 1, 1995

ISBN: 0-19-608613-9

Page Count: 336

Publisher: Oxford Univ.

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1995

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT
by William E. Leuchtenburg

- BOOK REVIEW
AMERICAN PLACES
edited by William E. Leuchtenburg

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.