“Brandwein’s impressive study adds a new dimension to the understanding of Reconstruction ideology and its legacy for future civil rights jurisprudence. . . . Highly recommended.” - Choice
“[A] welcomed . . . critique. . . . Professor Brandwein develops her thesis using an able study of how Americans from Reconstruction to the present have understood the events responsible for the passage of the post-Civil War Amendments.” - Mark A. Graber, The Law and Politics Book Review
“[W]ell-formulated, insightful, and timely. . . . Any sociologist interested in the origins, reproduction, and transformation of social hierarchies must come to terms with this crucial insight about law and patterns of social organization.” - Nicholas Pedriana, American Journal of Sociology
“Reconstructing Reconstruction is one of the finest meditations on history and law in recent years.” - Bryan H. Wildenthal, H-Net Reviews
“[A] good read. . . . Reconstructing Reconstruction is a fascinating journey that leads inexorably to [Brandwein’s] closing argument that constitutional law is a ‘culture of argument.’ . . . [H]er examination of the sociology of constitutional law is good reading for judges, lawyers, and students of constitutional law.” - Howard Ball, Journal of American History
“An exciting theoretical examination. . . . Legal scholars will have to acknowledge the challenge Brandwein poses by treating ‘original intent’ as a social and historical construction.”—Mark Tushnet, Georgetown University Law Center
“An important call for the development of a ‘sociology of constitutional law.’ Brandwein forces us to pay more attention to the ways in which the reconstruction of history (in this case, the history of Reconstruction) becomes a vital resource in contemporary constitutional politics.”—Howard Gillman, University of Southern California
“Reconstructing Reconstruction is one of the finest meditations on history and law in recent years.”
-- Bryan H. Wildenthal H-Net Reviews
“[A] good read. . . . Reconstructing Reconstruction is a fascinating journey that leads inexorably to [Brandwein’s] closing argument that constitutional law is a ‘culture of argument.’ . . . [H]er examination of the sociology of constitutional law is good reading for judges, lawyers, and students of constitutional law.”
-- Howard Ball Journal of American History
“[A] welcomed . . . critique. . . . Professor Brandwein develops her thesis using an able study of how Americans from Reconstruction to the present have understood the events responsible for the passage of the post-Civil War Amendments.”
-- Mark A. Graber Law and Politics Book Review
“[W]ell-formulated, insightful, and timely. . . . Any sociologist interested in the origins, reproduction, and transformation of social hierarchies must come to terms with this crucial insight about law and patterns of social organization.”
-- Nicholas Pedriana American Journal of Sociology
“Brandwein’s impressive study adds a new dimension to the understanding of Reconstruction ideology and its legacy for future civil rights jurisprudence. . . . Highly recommended.”
-- Choice