The Taney Court: Justices, Rulings, and Legacy.

The Taney Court: Justices, Rulings, and Legacy. By Timothy S. Huebner. ABC-CLIO Supreme Court Handbooks. (Santa Barbara, Calif., Denver, Colo., and Oxford, Eng.: ABC-CLIO, c. 2003. Pp. xiv, 288. Cloth, $65.00, ISBN 1-57607-368-8; e-book, $70.00, ISBN 1-57607-369-6.)

Timothy S. Huebner, an associate professor of history at Rhodes College and author of a fine monograph on the southern judicial tradition, has produced a strong addition to the ABC-CLIO Supreme Court Handbooks series. Huebner's contribution covers the Supreme Court's major constitutional opinions during the tenure of Chief Justice Roger B. Taney (1836-1864), and it seeks to convey to general readers the way in which "the lives of the justices--their regional and religious backgrounds, families and education, party affiliations and judicial experience, to name but a few factors"--shaped their opinions (p. xii).

Huebner covers a good deal of ground in a relatively short space. In 194 pages, he provides an account of the politics of judicial appointments during the antebellum and Civil War eras, a series of concise biographies of all twenty justices to serve on the Taney Court, and an analysis of the Taney Court's major rulings and constitutional legacy. The remainder of the book contains excerpts of judicial opinions, a glossary, a chronology, and a section entitled "Key People, Laws, and Events"--all items that general readers and students will find useful. Huebner's thesis is that Roger B. Taney was nearly a great chief justice. Decisions like Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge Company (1837), Cooley v. Board of Wardens of the Port of Philadelphia (1852), and Luther v. Borden (1849) made significant contributions to American constitutional development. "A more dynamic economic order, a more balanced federalism, and a clearer delineation of the proper roles of the various branches of government all came about during the Taney period" (pp. 192-93). Yet the Taney Court's support for slavery--an "unswerving devotion to slaveholding interests," Huebner says--must qualify all of these contributions (p. 172). Decisions like Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) strengthened slavery while weakening the Union and pushed the United States toward secession and civil war. A staunch commitment to human bondage prevented Taney from reaching his potential as a truly great chief justice.

Specialists will find no surprises here. Huebner's analyses of particular cases reach conclusions well established in the historiography, and he draws on no sources other than court decisions and secondary literature. That said, however, Huebner's insistence that scholars take into account both the Court's rulings on economic development, federalism, and separation of powers as well as slavery stands as a welcome corrective to older studies that tend to ignore slavery and newer ones that tend to allow slavery to overshadow everything else. Huebner's book also provides an overview of the Taney Court that is far more wieldy than the standard overview provided in Carl Brent Swisher's massive (and dated) The Taney Period, 1836-64 (New York, 1974). The brevity of The Taney Court: Justices, Rulings, and Legacy makes it an excellent introduction for students and other interested readers.

AUSTIN ALLEN

University of Houston--Downtown