Condition: Good. SIGNED! Inscribed, personalized (see photo)! Click on Photo to see actual item. Ships same or next day (weekdays and Saturdays)! Ships in a BOX with padding. Ships from California. Pages: not written on, clean, bright, fine edges, odor free. Dust Jacket: clean, bright, bumping to top edges and corners. ABOUT: Who are the real citizens of America? Which people truly qualify for equality under the law? Two hundred years ago, an honest answer to these questions would have excluded not only women, slaves, and Indians, but also Germans, Scotch-Irish, Catholics, and Jews. Yet the Declaration of Independence expresses a profound commitment to the ideal of equal citizenship. Throughout their history Americans have simultaneously believed in equality and accepted the subordination of groups of people―and both views have been reflected in American law. In this lively and original book, a leading constitutional law scholar shows how American law has both reflected and defined what it means to be an American, to "belong to America." Kenneth L. Karst shows that the ideal of equal citizenship has long been a vital part of the culture of American public life, and he tells a powerful story about how the idea of equality has developed in America, providing examples from throughout American history, from Dred Scott to Brown vs. Board of Education, from affirmative action to gender discrimination, and from the treatment of American Indians to the status of Christianity. Karst explores the psychological impact of discrimination on those who have been its victims―who, in one way or another, have been told by society that they do not belong. And he argues that the principle of equal citizenship can and should guide the nation's future just as it has shaped its past.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Professor Kenneth Karst

Kenneth Karst, an influential constitutional law scholar, teacher and longtime faculty member who had a profound effect in shaping UCLA School of Law, died on April 9. He was 89 years old.

A prolific and celebrated author in a wide range of fields, Karst was also a favorite of students, colleagues and peers. His efforts to address inequities in access to justice and legal education helped develop early minority outreach programs by the law school and shaped broader debates on access and equality.

Several legal titans participated in a 2000 issue of the UCLA Law Review that was published in Karst's honor. They praised him as a premiere legal scholar who had been cited 12 times by the Supreme Court and another 77 times by other federal courts, promoted fairness in every aspect of his work, enjoyed hiking in Hawai'i and was devoted to his wife, Smiley, and four children.

"Ken's knowledge of constitutional law is, quite literally, encyclopedic," Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote. "His writings on the law's promise of equality have inspired teachers, students and political actors worldwide."