| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 94.3

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to JAH online. About 119 words from this article are provided below; about 380 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the Organization of American Historians, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time.
If you are not a member of the Organization of American Historians, you can:: • Join the OAH and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the Journal of American History.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two-hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the Journal of American History (86.1-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the Journal of American History.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 94.3 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Constitutional Context: Women and Rights Discourse in Nineteenth-Century America. By Kathleen S. Sullivan. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007. xii, 181 pp. $45.00, ISBN 978-0-8018-8552-5.)

Kathleen S. Sullivan, a political scientist, aspires in her first book to join conversations on several topics: the lost capacity of common law to serve liberal society; dysfunctional narratives promulgated by suffragists; constitutionalism shaped by public discourse; and stubborn legal problems in women's rights litigation. She offers a historical narrative that implicates nineteenth-century women in "challeng[ing] the legitimacy of status in American political thought" and pushing the Supreme Court to adopt "the politically developed doctrine of abstract equality rather than the more contextually determined practice of equity" (pp. 5, 4).

. . .

There are about 380 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.