Chains of Justice: The Global Rise of State Institutions for Human Rights

Sonia Cardenas (Trinity College). Chains of Justice (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014).

"National human rights institutions—state agencies charged with protecting and promoting human rights domestically—have proliferated dramatically since the 1990s; today more than a hundred countries have NHRIs, with dozens more seeking to join the public trend. These institutions are found in states of all sizes—from the Maldives and Barbados to South Africa, Mexico, and India; they exist in conflict zones and comparatively stable democracies alike. In Chains of Justice, Sonia Cardenas offers a sweeping historical and global account of the emergence of NHRIs, linking their growing prominence to the contradictions and possibilities of the modern state." 
—Chains of Justice book jacket

Cruel Britannia: A Secret History of Torture

Ian Cobain. A Secret History of Torture (Counterpoint, 2012).

"Guardian investigator Ian Cobain begins his story with the Second World War, but could easily have gone much further back. A horribly repetitive picture would emerge: of British governments and their agents using systematic brutality against ever-changing categories of opponent, bending and twisting the law, and then lying about it all. His expose prompts a third historical reminder: that if British self-images and stereotypes of national character revolve around ideas of decency and fairness, a strikingly persistent feature of others' images of Britishness has been the charge of endemic hypocrisy."
—Stephen Howe, The Independent 

Shaping Our Nation: How Surges of Migration Transformed America and its Politics

Michael Barone. Shaping Our Nation (2013, Crown Forum).

"From the Scots-Irish influxes of the eighteenth century to the Ellis Island migrations of the early twentieth and Hispanic and Asian ones of the last four decades, people have moved to America partly in order to make a better living—but more important, to create new communities in which they could thrive and live as they wanted. Barone examines how the founders' formula of limited government, civic equality, and tolerance of religious and cultural diversity has provided a ready and useful template for not only coping with these new cultural influences, but for prospering as a nation with cultural variety."

—Shaping our Nation book jacket

For Discrimination: Race, Affirmative Action, and the Law

Randall Kennedy (Harvard Law School). For Discrimination (Pantheon Books, 2013).

"This is arguably the most clearheaded defense of affirmative action ever written. Kennedy's incisive analysis includes a compelling critique of a range of arguments by legal experts and social scientists on the pros and cons of affirmative action. In clear prose For Discrimination advances powerful arguments for sensibly defined affirmative action. This thoughtful book is a must-read for all Americans devoted to addressing past and current injustice."
—Prof. William Julius Wilson, Harvard University

The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government

David K. Johnson (University of South Florida). The Lavender Scare (The University of Chicago Press, 2004).  

"Warning of a spreading homosexual menace, McCarthy and his Republican allies introduced 'moral values' into the American political arsenal and helped win back the White House after twenty years of Democratic control. Drawing on newly declassified documents and interviews with former government officials, Johnson chronicles how the myth that homosexuals threatened national security ruined thousands of lives and pushed many to suicide."
—The Lavender Scare book jacket

The Civic Constitution: Civic Visions and Struggles in the Path toward Constitutional Democracy

Elizabeth Beaumont (University of Minnesota). The Civic Constitution (Oxford University Press, 2014).

"The role of the Constitution in American political history is contentious not simply because of battles over meaning. Equally important is precisely who participated in contests over meaning. In The Civic Constitution, Elizabeth Beaumont . . . traces the efforts of citizens to reinvent constitutional democracy during four crucial eras: the revolutionaries of the 1770s and 1780s; the civic founders of state republics and the national Constitution in the early national period; abolitionists during the antebellum and Civil War eras; and, finally, suffragists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Throughout, she argues that these groups should be recognized as founders and co-founders of the U.S. Constitution."
—From publisher's website

The Global War for Internet Governance

Laura DeNardis (American University). The Global War for Internet Governance (Yale University Press, 2014).

"The Internet has transformed the manner in which information is exchanged and business is conducted, arguably more than any other communication development in the past century. Despite its wide reach and powerful global influence, it is a medium uncontrolled by any one centralized system, organization, or governing body, a reality that has given rise to all manner of free-speech issues and cybersecurity concerns. The conflicts surrounding Internet governance are the new spaces where political and economic power is unfolding in the twenty-first century."

—The Global War for Internet Governance book jacket

Dynamism, Rivalry, and the Surplus Economy: Two Essays on the Nature of Capitalism

János Kornai (Harvard University). Dynamism, Rivalry, and the Surplus Economy (Oxford University Press, 2014).

"[In] Dynamism, Rivalry, and the Surplus Economy, Kornai has turned his attention to [capitalism] in an effort to explain what makes capitalism successful and what hampers the progress of socialism. This book argues that the two systems bring about opposing patterns of supply and demand in the labor and goods markets. Socialism is characterized by a shortage of goods and labor and by an excess of demand. Capitalism, on the other hand, is an economy of surplus—a chronic excess of supply of goods and labor."
—Dynamism, Rivalry, and the Surplus Economy book jacket

Understanding Clarence Thomas: The Jurisprudence of Constitutional Restoration

Ralph A. Rossum (Claremont McKenna College). Understanding Clarence Thomas (University Press of Kansas, 2014).

"Rossum's examination of the jurisprudence of Justice Thomas is thorough, well-documented, fair-minded, and admirably clear. Rossum sticks close to Justice Thomas's judicial opinions and lectures, letting them speak largely for themselves. This is not to say that Rossum does not criticize inconsistencies and problems—he does—but his major objective is to explain Thomas's 'Original General Meaning' approach to constitutional interpretation and to show how Thomas applies this approach in many areas of the law. Anyone who wants to understand Justice Thomas's jurisprudence should read this book."
—R. Shep Melnick, Boston College

WRONG: Nine Economic Policy Disasters and What We Can Learn from Them

Richard S. Grossman (Wesleyan University). WRONG (Oxford University Press, 2013).

"WRONG examines nine of the worst economic policy blunders of the last 250 years in order to learn why these policies were adopted and how they went so wrong. Analyzing events as diverse as trade policy in the 18th century, famine relief policy in the 19th century, post-war reconstruction in the 20th century, and the subprime and sovereign debt crises in the 21st century, WRONG presents detailed post-mortem analyses of some of the world's most severe economic policy failures. The issues that underlie these historical crises—famine, post-war reconstruction, global trade, and international finance, to name a few—remain extremely relevant today. . . . Presented clearly for economists and non-economists alike, WRONG provides a valuable guide book for contemporary policy makers and the citizens who elect them."
—WRONG book jacket

License to Wed: What Legal Marriage Means to Same-Sex Couples

Kimberly D. Richman (University of San Francisco). License to Wed (New York University Press, 2014). 

"This book examines the meanings of marriage for couples in the two first states that extended that right to same-sex couples: California and Massachusetts. The two states provide a compelling contrast: while in California the rights that go with marriage—inheritance, custody, and so forth—had already been granted to couples under the state's domestic partnership law, couples in Massachusetts did not previously have this same set of rights.  And while Massachusetts has offered civil marriage consistently since 2004, Californians have experienced a much more turbulent legal path.  And yet, same-sex couples in both states seek to marry for a variety of interacting, overlapping, and evolving reasons that do not vary significantly by location."
—License to Wed book jacket

Dignity, Rank, & Rights

Jeremy Waldron (New York University School of Law). Dignity, Rank, & Rights (Oxford University Press, 2012).

"Writers on human dignity roughly divide between those who stress the social origins of this concept and its role in marking rank and hierarchy, and those who follow Kant in grounding dignity in an abstract and idealized philosophical conception of human beings. In these lectures, Jeremy Waldron contrives to combine attractive features of both strands. . . . Together, the two lectures illuminate the relation between dignity conceived as the ground of rights and dignity conceived as the content of rights; they also illuminate important ideas about dignity as noble bearing and dignity as the subject of a right against degrading treatment; and they help us understand the sense in which dignity is better conceived as a status than as a kind of value."
—Dignity, Rank & Rights book jacket  

Sex and International Tribunals: The Erasure of Gender from the War Narrative

Chiseche Salome Mibenge (City University of New York). Sex and International Tribunals (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013).


"Before the twenty-first century, there was little legal precedent for the prosecution of sexual violence as a war crime. Now, international tribunals have the potential to help make sense of political violence against both men and women; they have the power to uphold victims' claims and to convict the leaders and choreographers of systematic atrocity. However, by privileging certain accounts of violence over others, tribunals more often confirm outmoded gender norms, consigning women to permanent rape victim status."
—Sex and International Tribunals book jacket