Hollow Tropes: Fresh Perspectives on Courts, Politics, and Inequality

In this issue, Tomiko Brown-Nagin reviews a trio of recent books – Martha Minow‘s In Brown’s Wake: Legacies of America’s Educational Landmark, Paul Frymer‘s Black and Blue: African Americans, the Labor Movement, and the Decline of the Democratic Party, and Julie Novkov‘s Racial Union: Law, Intimacy, and the White State in Alabama, 1865-1954 - brings fresh perspectives to the study of how courts, political actors, and a range of institutions have contributed to the nation‘s current mix of inequality and opportunity. Like earlier commentators, these authors recognize that court-based change is not a reliable tool of problem solving.