{"title":"J Douglas Smith","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"on-democracy-s-doorstep-book-j-douglas-smith-9780809074235","title":"On Democracy's Doorstep","description":"Today, Earl Warren is recalled as the chief justice of a Supreme Court that introduced school desegregation and other dramatic changes to American society. In retirement, however, Warren argued that his court's greatest accomplishment was establishing the principle of \"one person, one vote\" in state legislative and congressional redistricting. Malapportionment, Warren recognized, subverted the will of the majority, privileging rural voters, and often business interests and whites, over others. In declaring nearly all state legislatures unconstitutional, the court oversaw a revolution that transformed the exercise of political power in the United States.  On Democracy's Doorstep tells the story of this crucial-and neglected-episode. J. Douglas Smith follows lawyers, activists, and Justice Department officials as they approach the court. We see Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy pushing for radical change and idealistic lawyers in Alabama bravely defying their peers. We then watch as the justices edge toward their momentous decision. The Washington Post called the result a step \"toward establishing democracy in the United States.\"\nBut not everyone agreed; Smith shows that business lobbies and their political allies attempted to overturn the court by calling the first Constitutional Convention since the 1780s. Thirty-three states ratified their petition - just one short of the two-thirds required.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49640649097489,"sku":"GOR011165240","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49876042973457,"sku":"CIN0809074230G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50124825657617,"sku":"CIN0809074230VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0809074230.jpg?v=1786135052"},{"product_id":"on-democracy-s-doorstep-book-j-douglas-smith-9780809074242","title":"On Democracy's Doorstep","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWinner of the Henry Adams Prize from the Society for History in the Federal Government\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA Washington Post Notable Work of Nonfiction\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA \u003ci\u003eSlate \u003c\/i\u003eBest Book of 2014\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe inside story of the Supreme Court decisions that brought true democracy to the United States \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAs chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, Earl Warren is most often remembered for landmark rulings in favor of desegregation and the rights of the accused. But Warren himself identified a lesser known group of cases-Baker v. Carr, Reynolds v. Sims, and their companions-as his most important work. J. Douglas Smith's \u003ci\u003eOn Democracy's Doorstep\u003c\/i\u003e masterfully recounts the tumultuous and often overlooked events that established the principle of one person, one vote in the United States. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBefore the Warren Court acted, American democracy was in poor order. As citizens migrated to urban areas, legislative boundaries remained the same, giving rural lawmakers from sparsely populated districts disproportionate political power-a power they often used on behalf of influential business interests. Smith shows how activists ranging from city boosters in Tennessee to the League of Women Voters worked to end malapportionment, incurring the wrath of chambers of commerce and southern segregationists as they did so. Despite a conspiracy of legislative inaction and a 1946 Supreme Court decision that instructed the judiciary not to enter the political thicket, advocates did not lose hope. As Smith shows, they skillfully used the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause to argue for radical judicial intervention. Smith vividly depicts the unfolding drama as Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy pressed for change, Solicitor General Archibald Cox cautiously held back, young clerks pushed the justices toward ever-bolder reform, and the powerful Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen obsessively sought to reverse the judicial revolution that had upended state governments from California to Virginia. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eToday, following the Court's recent controversial decisions on voting rights and campaign finance, the battles described in \u003ci\u003eOn Democracy's Doorstep\u003c\/i\u003e have increasing relevance. With erudition and verve, Smith illuminates this neglected episode of American political history and confronts its profound consequences.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49782882861329,"sku":"CIN0809074249G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51007919685905,"sku":"NIN9780809074242","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51326669193489,"sku":"CIN0809074249VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52138701127953,"sku":"NLS9780809074242","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53393001644305,"sku":"GOR011187341","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0809074249.jpg?v=1750850380"},{"product_id":"managing-white-supremacy-book-j-douglas-smith-9780807854242","title":"Managing White Supremacy","description":"Black and white power struggles in segregated Virginia; Tracing the erosion of white elite paternalism in Jim Crow Virginia, Douglas Smith reveals a surprising fluidity in southern racial politics in the decades between World War I and the Supreme Court's 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision. Smith draws on official records, private correspondence, and letters to newspapers from otherwise anonymous Virginians to capture a wide and varied range of black and white voices. African Americans emerge as central characters in the narrative, as Smith chronicles their efforts to obtain access to public schools and libraries, protection under the law, and the equitable distribution of municipal resources. This acceleration of black resistance to white supremacy in the years before World War II precipitated a crisis of confidence among white Virginians, who, despite their overwhelming electoral dominance, felt increasingly insecure about their ability to manage the color line on their own terms. Exploring the everday power struggles that accompanied the erosion of white authority in the political, economic, and educational arenas, Smith uncovers the seeds of white Virginians' resistance to civil rights activism in the second half of the twentieth century.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49983707971857,"sku":"CIN0807854247G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50368133759249,"sku":"CIN0807854247A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51007871877393,"sku":"NIN9780807854242","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52409630654737,"sku":"NLS9780807854242","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":54089731113233,"sku":"CIN0807854247VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0807854247.jpg?v=1786130185"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-j-douglas-smith.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}