Washington's Heir

Gerard Magliocca has a corner on illuminating the history of the Constitution through the stories of neglected but instructive historical figures. His Bushrod Washington enlivens our understanding of the Constitution in its first decades in action. Required reading for constitutional historians and for anyone who wants to understand the legal legacy of the Founding-and the long shadow of George Washington himself. * Noah Feldman, Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law, Harvard Law School * I never cease to learn new things from Gerard Magliocca's research that fundamentally inform and even change how I teach and think about our constitutional narrative. This book is no exception. It fills a gap that we were not even aware existed: the crucial role played by Justice Bushrod Washington in the formative years of the Marshall Court. * Randy E Barnett, Georgetown Law, and author of The Original Meaning of the 14th Amendment: Its Letter and Spirit * Magliocca's biography is a remarkable achievement. It invites the reader to explore, through Washington's experience, the deeper political and social culture in which the nation's Founders were embedded — and to consider the extent to which America's current crisis is shattering its fundamental constitutional commitments. * Bruce Ackerman, Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science, Yale University * Magliocca has himself provided superb academic service in bringing to life a figure who is largely forgotten but for his famous surname and showing his contemporary relevance to some of our own important legal debates. * John O. McGinnis, Law & Liberty *