Constitution and the New Deal

G. Edward White is David and Mary Harrison Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Virginia and the author of numerous books, including Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. and Alger Hiss’s Looking-Glass Wars.

Well-crafted point-of-view books, especially those that challenge conventional understandings, are often a pleasure to read. By focusing on facts, interpretations, and logical arguments inconsistent with the prevailing wisdom, such books chip away at long entrenched views and create room for doubt that did not previously exist…they frequently initiate serious reconsideration of settled things. Such a book is G. Edward White’s latest effort, The Constitution and the New Deal. In this volume the distinguished University of Virginia legal historian offers a frontal attack on conventional understandings of the New Deal and its effect on American jurisprudence… White’s volume is well-argued and well-documented. It provides a coherent and often compelling argument, one that reflects considerable scholarly thought over a significant period of time… White’s argument encourages a creative rethinking of an historical account previously considered settled.

• Preface Introduction I Complicating the Conventional Account 1 The Conventional Account 2 The Transformation of the Constitutional Jurisprudence of Foreign Relations: The Orthodox Regime under Stress 3 The Triumph of Executive Discretion in Foreign Relations 4 The Emergence of Agency Government and the Creation of Administrative Law 5 The Emergence of Free Speech II The Constitutional Revolution as Jurisprudential Crisis 6 The Restatement Project and the Crisis of Early Twentieth-Century Jurisprudence 7 The Constitutional Revolution as a Crisis in Adaptivity III The Creation of Triumphalist Narratives 8 The Myths of Substantive Due Process 9 The Canonization and Demonization of Judges 10 Cabining the New Deal in Time Notes Index