Seth Lipsky

A neat idea, take the text of the US Constitution, annotate it, and expound upon it. This book is good, but not great. It's getting on base due to a fielder's choice, not a solid base hit.

Lipsky does a great job, talking history, court cases, what the Founders were saying, etc. There are many fine explications, many nuggets of history I never knew about, lots of references to Supreme Court cases and modern-day political matters. Lipsky's writing is lucid and energetic, never too verbose or long-winded. There are a bevy of "endnotes" of the horrid modern kind (i.e. 117 "this text" this citation) - which I hate. But citations are there. An index is provided.

The layout was a bit weird, but it worked okay. There should be a bibliography of selected texts. And then there were many areas where I was expecting some explanation, some explication, and there was nothing there. Like, for instance, how can you talk about the Fourteenth Amendment and not mention (I kept waiting for the annotation footnote, it never came!) United States v. Wong Kim Ark, the case that established birthright citizenship in the US. The current debate on immigration revolves all around birthright citizenship, but... no mention here. There were other such incidents.

"Write your own book then, Tucker!" I have no time. But maybe one day.

Good book if you can get it cheap.… (mehr)