SO WHAT IS JUSTICE ANYWAY?

This well-written, informative entry in the Student’s Guide to American Civics series serves as a good introduction to a complex and sometimes controversial issue. A brief section covering the concept of justice and its connection to such ideas as rights and freedom is followed by chapters that show how justice relates to other social constructs: government, the legal system, incarceration, punishment, and due process. Examples of justice (and injustice) and how they relate to basic relations among people are given, and the worldwide struggle for justice is covered, as are two of its champions, Jane Addams and Martin Luther King Jr. The book is useful, and its flashy contemporary format and the striking photographs that will keep it circulating. (glossary, bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 9-12)