Reviews

Cox, a Harvard law professor who was special prosecutor during Watergate, here presents a lucid, authoritative history of the Constitution's role in American life. The document has served well, he writes, because its framers said ``enough but not too much,'' giving subsequent generations a continuity of principles that, nonetheless, could meet changing needs. Cox focuses on how the Supreme Court assumed and acted on the power to interpret the Constitution's often vague meaning throughout the stages of U.S. development. Once called upon primarily to settle constitutional issues involving the growth of a national economy, and later the rise of the welfare state, the Court since World War II has been the Constitution's ``voice'' in the protection of individual rights, he shows. General readers will appreciate Cox's ability to get to the heart of complex issues. BOMC and History Book Club selections. (August 27)

The genius of the framers of the U.S. Constitution, suggests Cox, ``lay in their remarkable capacity for saying enough but not too much.'' Over the years, the ultimate authority on what the Constitution means has been the Supreme Court through its power of judicial review, a unique American invention and subject of this fine book. Cox, professor emeritus at the Harvard Law School and former Watergate Special Prosecutor, provides a searching analysis of landmark cases, from Marbury v. Madison to Roe v. Wade, that have contributed to the implementation of the doctrine of judicial review. A valuable addition is Cox's lengthy and intimate prologue, in which he discusses his role in the Watergate crisis. This is among the best of the recent books on U.S. constitutional law for nonspecialists. BOMC and History Book Club selections. Kenneth F. Kister, Pinellas Park P.L., Fla.