Professor Crosskey and the Brooding Omnipresence of Erie-Tompkins

Abstract

Professor Crosskey's new book on the Constitution is an exciting work. It is exciting for a reason as unique as it is admirable with respect to this type of book, namely, the intellectual punch it delivers. We are accustomed to stately works ringing the now accepted changes of reverence to the Constitution in its modern guise as fashioninga union of diverse, almost warring, states. Occasionally--so much so as now to be almost a rarity--we do find specific criticism of the creaking governmental structure which results and some despairing hope for change in the direction of modern efficiency. But this opus is something quite different and beyond our experience. For it is a new history, the fruit of nearly two decades of patient research, which presents the direct challenge that the original plan and intent of the Constitution was the creation of a simply conceived national government. A possibility of simplicity in place of infinite complexity, of effective functional action instead of near-paralysis amid competing sovereignties, is surely alluring. And with proof so detailed and withal so persuasive as here afforded, we must hail this as a major scholastic effort of our times.