I'm a legal scholar interested in this area though my usual area is corporate and commercial law. This is an excellent book. Although I gather BT has refined his views somewhat since he wrote this, it is I think a very useful and fresh way to look at the course of American jurisprudence, and based on other research I have done, accurate as well. BT has a crisp and unpretentious writing style and his arguments are straightforward. I have not quite finished the book, but based on first 2/3 I am already very glad I picked it up. He is admirably even-handed. At a few points one can tell he leans against more conservative views such as originalism and law & economics, but he does not seem to let this influence his judgments.



I suppose one could criticize that the book could have been more ambitious theoretically, but given that so much legal scholarship these days is failed theory, I am glad it is pitched as it is. The book weighs in at 230+ pages, but would be longer than that in print you could read without glasses. The Kindle edition does not have an active TOC which is unfortunate.



The narrative qualities of the book make it a good read. I think the story it tells is almost tragic, but it is compelling. I wish there had been a book like this to read 25 years ago when I was in law school. It would have made the theoretical muddle I found so frustrating then more understandable, at least in the sense I would have understood how things got to be the mess they were. Very highly recommended.