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OF POWER AND RIGHT

Name: OF POWER AND RIGHT
Author: Howard Ball
ISBN: 0-19-504612-9

HUGO BLACK, WILLIAM O. DOUGLAS, AND AMERICA'S CONSTITUTIONAL REVOLUTION

by Howard Ball & Phillip J. Cooper ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 1, 1991

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An intelligent and thorough assessment of the legacy of the Supreme Court's famous liberals. Ball (Political Science/Univ. of Vermont; Justice Downwind, 1986) and Cooper (Political Science/SUNY at Albany) skillfully weave biographies with analyses of the Court's evolution on such issues as First Amendment rights, due process, and racial equality. Hugo Black and William O. Douglas, the authors explain, were culturally and temperamentally opposite yet ideologically similar. Black—backwoods Alabama lawyer, police-court judge, and wily politician who never earned a college degree—and Douglas— respected Ivy League law professor and crusading SEC chairman- -shared a populist-progressive orientation and a commitment to FDR's New Deal. Ball and Cooper point out that Black and Douglas were ``at the epicenter of an `extraordinary revolution in constitutional law.' '' While the authors recognize the similarities between the two, they also emphasize the differences- -Black was a constitutional literalist who read the Bill of Rights narrowly and regarded judicial activism with horror, while Douglas believed that courts should not shrink from overt policy-making in the cause of protecting personal liberty. The creative tension between Black's emphasis on the people's power to govern and Douglas's emphasis on individual rights engendered many doctrines of constitutional law that retain vitality today. The authors' discussion of their subjects' often acrimonious conflicts with their conservative brethren—particularly Felix Frankfurter, Harlan Fiske Stone, and John Marshall Harlan—also helps to illuminate the political pressures that mold our constitutional law. A thoughtful study of an abiding constitutional legacy. (Twenty halftones—not seen.)

Pub Date: Dec. 1, 1991

ISBN: 0-19-504612-9

Page Count: 432

Publisher: Oxford Univ.

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1991

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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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.