When the discussion was afoot about the changes in the size (and focus) of the Michigan Law Review's annual book review issue, I meant to weigh in with comments on their decline in reviews in legal history. I think that's unfortunate; there're a ton of great works in legal history (Law and History Review usually reviews about fifty a year and we have to pass on a lot of good books). This year Michigan reviewed only one legal history book. They picked a good one, though. I was thankful for Sam Erman's review of Austin Allen's Origins of the Dred Scott Case: Jacksonian Jurisprudence and the Supreme Court.
So I'm particularly thankful for Cristina M. Rodríguez' review in the Yale Law Journal of Brian Landsberg's Free At Last to Vote. I had the pleasure of seeing Brian's presentation of an early version of this back on September 10, 2001, at an Alabama colloquium. Alabama looms large in American and legal history, for sure.
Comments