Slavery, Abortion, and the Politics of Constitutional Meaning

For the past forty years, prominent pro-life activists, judges, and politicians have invoked the history and legacy of American slavery to elucidate aspects of contemporary abortion politics. As is often the case, many of these popular analogies have been imprecise, underdeveloped, and historically simplistic. In Slavery, Abortion, and the Politics of Constitutional Meaning, Justin Buckley Dyer provides the first book-length scholarly treatment of the parallels between slavery and abortion in American constitutional development. In this fascinating and wide-ranging study, Dyer demonstrates that slavery and abortion really are historically, philosophically, and legally intertwined in America. The nexus, however, is subtler and more nuanced than is often suggested, and the parallels involve deep principles of constitutionalism.

Author: Justin Buckley Dyer
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 06/28/2013
Pages: 206
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.90lbs
Size: 8.60h x 5.60w x 0.70d
ISBN: 9781107031944

Review Citation(s):
Choice 05/01/2014

About the Author
Dyer, Justin Buckley: - Justin Buckley Dyer is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Missouri, Columbia. He received a BA in political science and an MPA from the University of Oklahoma, and an MA and PhD in government from the University of Texas, Austin. Dyer's research has been published in Polity, the Journal of Politics, PS: Political Science and Politics, Politics and Religion, and Perspectives on Political Science. He is the author of Natural Law and the Antislavery Constitutional Tradition (Cambridge University Press, 2012) and the editor of American Soul: The Contested Legacy of the Declaration of Independence (2012).