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by: James F. Simon  List Price: $15.00 Amazon.com's Price: $11.70 You Save: $3.30 (22%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Binding: PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 973 EAN: 9780743250337 ISBN: 0743250338 Label: Simon & Schuster Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 336 Publication Date: November 20, 2007 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Studio: Simon & Schuster Related Items:
Browse for similar items by category: Click to Display Editorial Review: Product Description: The clashes between President Abraham Lincoln and Chief Justice Roger B. Taney over slavery, secession, and the president's constitutional war powers went to the heart of Lincoln's presidency. James Simon, author of the acclaimed What Kind of Nation, brings to vivid life the passionate struggle during the worst crisis in the nation's history, the Civil War. The issues that underlaid that crisis -- race, states' rights, and the president's wartime authority -- resonate today in the nation's political debate. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - Brief book, tends to gloss over detailsThis is quite a thin book, but with an engaging writing style. It seems to glass over why Taney made such a seemingly radical decision and why he was able to get 6 others to affirm it. Little treatment of his relationshiop with the Catholic church or even what he thought of blacks as individuals. Rather jarring discussion of George W. Bush and Rumsfeld, where he takes the predictable liberal positions, while excusing Lincolns' abuse of arresting a sitting Ohio congressman. Not one word ... Read More Rating:  - Two lawyers and a Nation in crisisIt should be widely known that during the greatest crisis that has faced the US, the Civil War, Lincoln suspended the rights of habeas corpus (trial by jury) and essentially bent the Constitution in order to save the Union. In James Simon's book "Lincoln and Chief Justice Taney: Slavery, Secession, and the President's War Powers" he gives us a fairly balanced approach in examining both sides of the issues facing the President and the Supreme Court as it relates to the Constitution and civil liberties. ... Read More Rating: - Captivating Work of Legal History!James Simon has been making a career out of writing great books that profile legal/political controversies. He has also written one about the Jefferson/Marshall, and then the Black/Frankfurter, fights. But not to worry. They are entertaining, all; this one is no exception. The primary concern of this book is to explore the differing visions - on practically all issues - between then president elect Lincoln and then Supreme Court Chief Justice Taney. Lincoln, from Illinois, was a moderate republican ... Read More Rating:  - Enough Reviews Have Now Been WrittenActually, more than enough has now been written about this book in the reviews above. One wishes there had been a more detailed analysis of Taney's pre-Lincoln opinions, a more detailed analysis of his anti-Presidential opinions, and a little less repetition of the well-trod facts of Lincoln's life. But nothwithstanding all this, it was a quick paced easily readable way to become re-acquainted with this too often ignored clash over executive power. And it provides much fodder for discussion of how W is using executive ... Read More Rating: - Good, but not GreatLincoln and Chief Justice Taney was a quick read (about 280 pages), which did not shed much new light on Lincoln or his presidency. The parts on Taney were interesting when you came across them, but the book itself was not balanced. Taney comes across as a "great" and fair Chief Justice untill the Dred Scott decision in 1857, and then he becomes blinded by his 'State's Rights' philosophy. This bias affects most of his post-Dred Scott rulings, and diminishes Taney's status as a potentially great Chief Justice. The book ... Read More 
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