Brandeis and the Progressive Constitution: Erie, the judicial Power, and the Politics of the Federal Courts in Twentieth-Century America. (book review)

Yale Law Journal, March, 2001 by Bandes, Susan

Brandeis and the Progressive Constitution: Erie, the Judicial Power, and the Politics of the Federal Courts in Twentieth-Century America. By Edward A. Purcell, Jr.(*) New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000. Pp. 417. $37.50.

I. INTRODUCTION

In his ambitious and beautifully realized new book, Edward Purcell reminds his readers that only recently have federal courts scholars begun to consider the extent to which their subject is the product of distinctive historical developments.(1) One of the many gifts of this important work is its vivid demonstration of how much scholars gain by studying jurisdictional issues in historical context, at least when history is treated with the richness and breadth of purpose that characterize Brandeis and the Progressive...

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