Eisenhower vs. Warren: The Battle for Civil Rights and Liberties [Hardcover]

The bitter feud between President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Chief Justice Earl Warren framed the tumultuous future of the modern civil rights movement. Eisenhower was a gradualist who wanted to coax white Americans in the South into eventually accepting integration, while Warren, author of the Supreme Courts historic unanimous opinion inEnjoyably readable, thoroughly researched.... An absorbing book about a saga in American law and politics that remains centrally important.The most thorough and balanced assessment of the two mens fraught relationship yet written.... Simon is the ideal scholar to undertake this study, having made a career of examining conflicts between the presidency and the Supreme Court. As we anticipate an existential clash between Donald Trump and the justicesif Trump attempts to fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller, for instance, or defies an obstruction-of-justice findingSimons book is highly topical. It also has something to teach us about incremental versus rapid change. The fundamental disagreement it chronicles concerns the pace of social progress.Illuminate[s] an often-overlooked period of legal history at the start of the civil rights movement. . . . Simon is in top form, creating sympathetic portraits of both protagonists, capturing the historical context of Eisenhowers presidency, thoroughly explaining the dynamics of the Warren Court, and, when necessary, looking past Eisenhowers and Warrens professed positions to expose their underlying motives and goals. This balanced account of the bitter relationship between Eisenhower and Warren presents a new lens through which to view the start of the civil rights movement.A vivid account&.Gripping.Many Americans, especially white ones, think of the 1950s with gauzy nostalgia&.[A detailed,fine-grained study...As Simon skillfully demonstrates, Eisenhower was far from inert on thesubject of racial reform& Warren, too, is written as intriguinglycomplicated.The two principals indilƒ)