Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Pages: 240
•
Trim: 6¼ x 9½
978-1-5381-2367-6 • Hardback • March 2019 • $42.00 • (£35.00)
978-1-5381-2368-3 • eBook • March 2019 • $39.50 • (£30.00)
John E. Finn is an accomplished professor of constitutional law, an award-winning teacher, and a much sought after public speaker. He is Professor of Government Emeritus at Wesleyan University. His scholarly research and teaching focuses on constitutional theory, comparative constitutional law, the first amendment, and the legal regulation of terrorism and political violence. He is the author of three highly regarded and influential books on constitutional law: Peopling the Constitution (Kansas, 2014), American Constitutional Law: Essays, Cases, and Comparative Notes (coauthor, Rowman & Littlefield, 2009), and Constitutions in Crisis: Political Violence and the Rule of Law (Oxford, 1991), and of numerous scholarly articles in professional journals.
“Through the lens of the Constitution, John E. Finn crystalizes the far-right’s selective and twisted interpretation of America’s core values. Fracturing the Founding is an incisive guide to the thinking of fringe extremists. With sharp research and straightforward argument, it unpicks the contradictions at the heart of the alt-right. This book is one of the clearest deconstructions of how extremists try to weaponize the First and Second amendments in the face of a long history of evolving and often muddy and contradictory case law. And, importantly, Finn not only makes traces some of the commonalities in the diffuse contemporary far-right, but exposes how fringe ideas migrate into mainstream conservative outlets through a web of shared values and ideas. At a time when originalism is on the rise, Fracturing the Founding outlines the alarming ideas that might seep into America’s justice system if the extreme right has its way.”
— Michael Wendling, author of Alt-Right: From 4chan to the White House
“John Finn has provided a helpful service by explaining how leading figures of the far right approach to the Constitution, and by informing readers why legal scholars reject their interpretation."
— George Hawley, author of Making Sense of the Alt-Right