The Warren Court and the Pursuit of Justice

The Hill and Wang Critical Issues Series: concise, affordable works on pivotal topics in American history, society, and politics. The men who made up the Supreme Court when Earl Warren was Chief Justice (1953-69) changed America forever, and their decisions are still affecting constitutional law today. This overview of the Warren Court focuses on its landmark cases and enduring legacy.

Morton J. Horwitz, Charles Warren Professor of American History and Law at the Harvard Law School, is the author of the two-volume Transformation of American Law. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

"The men who made up the Warren Court changed America forever. Morton Horwitz has written the best accessible general history of how they did it."--Eben Moglin, Columbia Law School

"In this modest and very moving book, Morton Horwitz summarizes the achievements of the Supreme Court under Earl Warren. . . . He provides a clear and compact account of the Warren Court and its legacy, bringing an engaged sympathy but also sharp analysis and critical distance. The Court helped irrevocably to alter the practical meanings of freedom, equality, and democracy in America. This is a story of momentous decisions, and Horwitz tells it simply and well."--Robert W. Gordon, Johnston Professor of Law and History, Yale University

[An] elegant extended essay. . . . [Horwitz's] effort is not only to tell what happened during an exceptionally fruitful sixteen-year period, but to infuse those events with meaning for readers who come to them with neither basic facts nor historical context readily at hand. The effort succeeds to a notable degree."--Linda Greenhouse, The New York Times