The Reign of Law
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Marbury v. Madison and the Construction of America
Paul W. Kahn
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Format: PaperPrice: $32.00
"A brilliantly innovative and provocative work of pathfinding dimensions."—Robert M. Ireland, Journal of the Early Republic
"No scholar of the American constitution or American history can afford not to read this book—at least twice."—Herbert A. Johnson, Law and History Review
"Kahn is clearly a scholar of great intelligence and creativity."—Scott D. Gerber, Journal of American History
In this ground-breaking book, Kahn uses modern cultural theory to investigate America’s most profound political myth: the belief that the rule of law is rule by the people. Kahn explores the elements of the myth, the rhetoric of law that sustains the myth, and the world of meaning the myth creates. He shows us that law must be central to religious, anthropological, and philosophical studies of American life.
Paul W. Kahn, Robert W. Winner Professor of Law and the Humanities at Yale Law School, is the author of Law and Love: The Trials of King Lear and Legitimacy and History: Self-Government in American Constitutional Theory, both published by Yale University Press.
"This important and splendid book argues that the rule of law is not fact but appearance—a construction of social imagination and a standpoint for the interpretation of politics and history. Fascinating and deeply original, the book applies the insights of cultural studies to constitutional scholarship."—David Luban
"Kahn's critical exploration of politics as law and action, and of the edgy relationship between the two, advances political anthropology's view considerably. His fluent, convincing argument carries Dworkin's exercise in Law's Empire a step further—and its greater strength, I would suggest, lies in the very fact that Kahn does, indeed, take a specific text to analyze specifically the American political imagination. And yet his subject matter is so inventively framed that it achieves much more. I think that Kahn's provocative work will be well received and long discussed within many disciplinary arenas—not least, anthropology."—Joan E. Vincent, professor of anthropology emerita, Barnard College, Columbia University
"In this imaginative book, Kahn applies modern cultural theory to the idea, or 'myth,' of the rule of law."—Choice
"[The Reign of Law] would be a very appropriate but challenging required text for use in honors undergraduate and graduate seminars in jurisprudence, political theory, and constitutional law. . . . Professor Kahn is to be commended for his very well written, meticulous analysis and argument."—Edward M. Wheat, History: Reviews of New Books
"Kahn is clearly a scholar of great intelligence and creativity."—Scott D. Gerber, Journal of American History
"A brilliantly innovative and provocative work of pathfinding dimensions."—Robert M. Ireland, Journal of the Early Republic
"No scholar of the American constitution or American history can afford not to read this book—at least twice. Professor Kahn has written a wide-ranging postmodern study of Marbury v. Madison, both as it stood in John Marshall’s day and what it means as we move into the twenty-first century."—Herbert A. Johnson, Law and History Review
Publication Date: July 11, 2002
