Book Reviews and Notices : The Development of the Constitution. By PERCY T. FENN. (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc. 1948. Pp. xix, 733. $5.00. )

• Date: 01 September 1948
• Published date: 01 September 1948
• Author: Frederick C. Irion
• DOI: 10.1177/106591294800100336
• Subject Matter: Articles

342
The Development of the Constitution
.
By PERCY T. FENN. (New York:
Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc. 1948. Pp. xix, 733. $5.00. )
Percy T. Fenn’s The Development of the Constitution is not, as one
would suspect from the publisher’s advertisements, a casebook in constitu-
tional law, but is a history of constitutional growth, exactly as the title indi-
cates, using excerpts from decisions as a means of illustrating the basic prin-
ciples of the American system of government.
The book is divided into five parts: first, judicial review; second, the
great concepts of the Constitution such as political liberty, inviolability of
contracts, due process of law, and police power of the states; third, fiscal
powers of government; f ourth, interstate commerce in special relation to
definition, monopolies and labor unions; and fi f th, the revision of dogma
under the New Deal. Within this scope, Professor Fenn has done a careful,
scholarly job that is never weak, frequently has unusual insight, and is al-
ways sound.
The most successful device employed is the placing of &dquo;the revision
of dogma&dquo; cases at the end of the volume. The impact of the New Deal
on jurisprudence is strikingly revealed by this method. But if topical assign-
ments are desired, this arrangement will offer no obstacle, since the selections
are such that they will neatly fit into the first four sections. Another tech-
nique successfully used is the more-than-ordinary reliance on dissenting
...