Here's another book for Maureen Henry's bookshelf.
If you order Plato and a Platypus (Book MEME / Challenge , This Book Will NOT Appeal To Everyone ) from Amazon, chances are Amazon will also offer you The Supremes' Greatest Hits in a package deal. Take the deal! Buy it!
No, it's not about Diana Ross and the Motown Sound. It's about the 34 Supreme Courts Cases That Most Directly Affect Your Life.
It's not a big book. It is fascinating. And easy to read. The cases are presented in a kind of "conceptual order", not chronological order.
Each case is presented in 5 or 6 pages, summarizing the people, the issue, the decision, the historical context.
You'll get a quick look at everything from Marbury vs. Madison (1803) and the infamous Dred Scott vs. Sanford (1857), to Bush vs. Gore (2000).
You'll finish the book with new understanding of how our government and judicial system operate.
Here's a little more info:
http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/01/22/030804.php
http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/01/23/033943.php
Cheryl:
Cute title. I thought at first it was music, then realized it was a book that is about our judicial system. Looks interesting.
You have struck my interest I wonder what the 34 cases are?
Rebecca: If I told you all 34 cases, that would spoil the fun <s>. I mentioned Marbury vs. Madison, Dred Scott vs. Sanford, and Bush vs. Gore.
As you might expect: Roe vs. Wade. Also Epperson vs. Arkansas. The author calls this the Scopes Monkey Trial Redux; the Scopes trial was the subject of the ficitionalized movie, Inherit the Wind ... The Epperson case brought the same issue before the Supreme Court several decades later.
And the short (5 page) summation of United States vs. Nixon is as good an explanation of the issues surrounding the Watergate Scandal as you will find in much longer essays.
Cheryl, This sounds like a fascinating page turner. Supreme Synopsis... It's on my kists os must reads
Ginger