The Reading Room

The Spirit of the Laws, a Reading Room essay

On The Spirit of the Laws

Michael Fowler

Three branches of government, separated so that no single hand holds all the power: the idea is so woven into how Americans imagine government that it can feel like a...

On The Spirit of the Laws

Michael Fowler

Three branches of government, separated so that no single hand holds all the power: the idea is so woven into how Americans imagine government that it can feel like a...

The Open Society and Its Enemies, a Reading Room essay

On The Open Society and Its Enemies

Michael Fowler

Karl Popper called The Open Society and Its Enemies his war work.

On The Open Society and Its Enemies

Michael Fowler

Karl Popper called The Open Society and Its Enemies his war work.

The New Jim Crow, a Reading Room essay

On The New Jim Crow

Michael Fowler

Michelle Alexander recast the national argument over criminal justice by naming what she argued it does.

On The New Jim Crow

Michael Fowler

Michelle Alexander recast the national argument over criminal justice by naming what she argued it does.

The Common Law, a Reading Room essay

On The Common Law

Michael Fowler

The life of the law has not been logic; it has been experience. With that famous opening, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. announced, in 1881, a revolution in how Americans understood...

On The Common Law

Michael Fowler

The life of the law has not been logic; it has been experience. With that famous opening, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. announced, in 1881, a revolution in how Americans understood...

Gideon's Trumpet, a Reading Room essay

On Gideon's Trumpet

Michael Fowler

A poor man named Clarence Earl Gideon, convicted of a petty crime in Florida and forced to defend himself because he could not afford a lawyer, sat in his prison...

On Gideon's Trumpet

Michael Fowler

A poor man named Clarence Earl Gideon, convicted of a petty crime in Florida and forced to defend himself because he could not afford a lawyer, sat in his prison...

Democracy and Distrust, a Reading Room essay

On Democracy and Distrust

Michael Fowler

John Hart Ely set out to solve the deepest puzzle in American constitutional law, and Democracy and Distrust, published in 1980, offers the most influential answer of its era.

On Democracy and Distrust

Michael Fowler

John Hart Ely set out to solve the deepest puzzle in American constitutional law, and Democracy and Distrust, published in 1980, offers the most influential answer of its era.