The lawyers who made America : from Jamestown to the White House

No other nation's creation, both politically and socially, owes such a debt to lawyers as the United States of America. This book traces the story of that creation through the human lives of those who played important parts in it: amongst others, of English lawyers who established the form of the original colonies; of the Founding Fathers, who declared independence and created a Constitution; of Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, Justices of the Supreme Court and finally Barack Obama. Even Richard Nixon features, if only as a reminder that even the President is subject to the law. The author combines his wide legal experience and engaging writing style to produce a book that will enthral lawyers and laymen alike, giving perhaps a timely reminder of the importance of the rule of law to American democracy.

Prologue : Walter Raleigh -- Maps and explorers : Richard Hakluyt -- The Virginia Company : John Popham -- Democracy : Edwyn Sandys -- Religion and liberty : Nathaniel Ward -- Toleration : Cecil Calvert and William Penn -- Representation : James Otis Junior -- The common law : William Blackstone -- Penman of the Revolution : John Dickinson -- Revolution : John Adams -- Independence : Thomas Jefferson -- Constitution : John Rutledge -- Bill of Rights : Roger Sherman and James Madison -- Nationhood : Alexander Hamilton -- Consolidation : John Marshall -- Slavery abolished : Abraham Lincoln -- The world stage : Woodrow Wilson -- Legal dynamism : Oliver Wendell Holmes Junior and Louis Brandeis -- Social intervention : Earl Warren -- The President under the law : Archibald Cox and Richard Nixon -- The glass ceiling : Sandra O'Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg -- Epilogue : Barack Obama -- Appendix : First fourteen amendments to the United States Constitution.