Constitutional Issues Books -- Upper Level/Adult Clark, W.V.T. The Oxbow Incident. A posse seeks vengeance for an alleged case of murder resulting in the death of three innocent men and two suicides. Questions of due process and jurisdiction are raised in this quick read novel. Cooper, Phillip J. Battles on the Bench: Conflict Inside the Supreme Court. University of Kansas. Fallows, James. Breaking the News: How the Media Undermines American Democracy. Pantheon. Gitlin, Todd. The Twilight of Common Dreams: Why America is Wracked by Culture Wars. Holt/Metropolitan. Golding, William. The Lord of the Flies. A group of British school boys marooned on a desert island reject authority and the moral principles of civilized society, leading to anarchy. Hill, Anita Faye and Jordan, Emma Coleman. Race, Gender and Power: The Legacy of the Hill-Thomas Hearings. Oxford University Press. Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. The contrast between the experiences of Hester, the convicted adulterer, and Dimmesdale, the unconfessed adulterer, calls into question the notion of judgment and punishment in a Puritan society. Irons, Peter. The Courage of Their Convictions. Free Press, 1988. A moving account of some of the individuals who struggled to secure the full meaning of the rights we enjoy today through cases that set Supreme Court precedents. Kafka, Franz. The Trial. A man is convicted of a crime he not only didn’t commit, but the details of which he isn’t told. Raises questions of authority, due process and the structure of the law. Kammen, Michael. A Machine that Would Go of Itself: The Constitution in American Culture. Vintage, 1986. Kammen investigates the meaning of the Constitution on practical and symbolic levels. The Constitution emerges from his analysis as a document of strength and flexibility that mirrors the changes in society’s values and beliefs. Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. Told from the point of view of a young girl, this novel of the trial of a black man accused of raping a white girl is understandable to younger readers. An excellent novel for trial reenactments. Lewis, Anthony. Gideon’s Trumpet. Random House, 1964. Highly readable account of the Supreme Court’s 1962 Supreme Court decision Gideon v. Wainwright, guaranteeing legal representation to those who could not otherwise afford an attorney. O’Reilly, Kenneth. Nixon’s Piano: Presidents and Racial Politics from Washington to Clinton. Free Press. Orwell, George. Animal Farm. The animals of Manor Farm mutiny and unsuccessfully attempt to establish a just society based on a socialist model. Tyranny likened to authoritarian regimes like Stalinist Russia results. Paton, Alan. Cry the Beloved Country. Set in South Africa, this novel centers on the investigation and trial of a young black man who accidentally kills a white man during an attempted robbery. The story focuses attention on an entire society’s responsibility for crime. Peck, Robert S. We the People: The Constitution in American Life. Abrams, 1987. Companion volume to the PBS series of the same name focuses on how contemporary constitutional debates echo those of the past. Powell, Colin. My American Journey. Random House. Smith, Page. The Constitution: A Documentary and Narrative History. Morrow, 1978. Smith’s 564 pages offer the best compendium of documents and explanations on the origins and evolution of the Constitution. Sophocles. "Antigone." Antigone is faced with two laws, the upholding of one resulting in the breaking of another. An excellent way of introducing contradictions between laws. Steinbeck, John. Of Mice and Men. This well-known, easy-to-read novel portrays a retarded man unable to control his strength and a responsible man’s efforts to teach control. The tragic failure raises the question of how society should deal with those who cannot comprehend basic laws. Wright, Richard. "Between the World and Me" (poem). A young black man comes upon a lynching and in his terror he becomes the lynched man. The fact that his terror is based on a feeling of being outside the protection of the law makes this an especially gripping poem. >>Elementary >>Intermediate >>Upper Level/Adult >>Film Suggestions Resources Home | Resources: Constitutional Issues Home