John Marshall and the Constitution, a Chronicle of the Supreme Court

Corwin, Edward Samuel, 1878-1963Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.9
Word count
318K words
Chapters
32

Tags

English Originals World HistoryLaw Historical ReappraisalJudicial ReviewPolitical AllegoryPortrait GalleryPower GameCivic Awareness

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.John Marshall and the Constitution, a Chronicle of the Supreme Court by CorwinAuthor: Corwin, Edward Samuel, 1878-1963,Language: English, Class: KF: Law in general, Comparative and uniform law, Jurisprudence: United States, Release Date: Jun 1, 2002

Editor's review

This work, titled John Marshall and the Constitution: A Chronicle of the Supreme Court, comes from the hand of the American jurist Edward S. Corwin. It is not a simple biography of Marshall but a chronicle that examines the man, the institution, and constitutional principles along a single narrative thread. The book's real strength lies in the way the author, centering on the key decisions of Marshall's tenure, shows how the Supreme Court established the practice of judicial review and constitutional interpretation in the early Republic, and thereby shaped the boundary between federal and state power. The narrative balances institutional analysis with historical context, making it suitable both as an introductory guide to American constitutional history and as a framework for readers with some background to re-examine the line of cases. The most valuable way to read this book is as a historical primer on how judicial power grew from a weak institution into a participant in the constitutional order, not as a commentary on clauses or a casebook reference.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Begin with the table of contents and chapter titles to trace the line of cases during Marshall's tenure, then read chapter by chapter.
  2. While reading, note down decisions involving federal-state relations and build your own list of questions.
  3. Read alongside background materials on early American history to lower the threshold for understanding the institutional context.
  4. After each chapter, restate its core argument in your own words to check whether you have truly grasped the author's reasoning.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32

FAQ

Is this book a personal biography of Marshall? Not in the strict sense. The word “chronicle” in the title indicates that it focuses on the Supreme Court during Marshall's tenure as the thread for discussing the development of constitutional principles and judicial institutions; the man's experience serves the institutional narrative rather than centering on his private life.
Can I understand it without a legal background? Yes, but it requires some patience. The book deals with cases and constitutional interpretation, and the author's narrative leans toward institutional analysis. It is advisable to first grasp the basic background of the early federal-state power debates, then move into the main text; the reading experience will be smoother.
Is this book suitable for use as a casebook reference? Not really. It is a work of historical chronicle, focused on explaining context and principles rather than providing complete case texts, clause-by-clause comparison, or practical research functions. For specific case details, consult specialized materials.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Corwin, Edward Samuel, 1878-1963 Author · American · 1878–1963

Edward Samuel Corwin (1878–1963) was an American constitutional scholar who taught for many years at Princeton University. His research focused on the powers of the American presidency and on constitutional interpretation, and he exerted a certain influence in the study of American constitutional history and public law. The library holds his work John Marshall and the Constitution, a Chronicle of the Supreme Court, which concerns John Marshall and the Supreme Court and belongs to the field of constitutional history and judicial institutions. The available materials in the library offer only limited details of his life and academic career, and public information is likewise limited; this introduction therefore centers on the subject matter of his work and his research interests rather than supplying biographical particulars.