Memory and Authority

Winner of the 2024 Thomas M. Cooley Book Prize, sponsored by the  Georgetown Law’s Center for the Constitution“At a moment when the Supreme Court is playing fast and loose with its notions of the nation’s ‘history and traditions,’ Jack Balkin provides a much-needed, nuanced, and perceptive analysis of how lawyers, scholars, and informed citizens should think about historical interpretations of the Constitution.”—Jack Rakove, author of Beyond Belief, Beyond Conscience: The Radical Significance of the Free Exercise of Religion“Lawyers and historians have long mistrusted each other. In this remarkable book, one of our most brilliant constitutional theorists blazes a path towards a more satisfying coexistence by reframing the many ways history is deployed in the creation of constitutional claims. Bravo!”—Laura Kalman, Distinguished Research Professor of History, University of California, Santa Barbara“History does not belong only to historians. Lawyers and judges often invoke history to justify arguments they wish to make. Memory and Authority is a brilliant meditation on how this process has worked in the past, and should work. This timely intervention is perfect for our moment, as we consider the future of our democracy and the rule of law.”—Annette Gordon-Reed, Carl M. Loeb University Professor, Harvard University“American lawyers and judges have long turned to the historical past for guidance and authoritative answers, but never more so than in recent years. Jack Balkin’s expert navigation of the complex and contested terrain where law and history intersect is essential reading for anybody who cares about the nation’s constitutional practice.”—Jonathan Gienapp, author of The Second Creation: Fixing the American Constitution in the Founding Era

Jack M. Balkin is Knight Professor of Constitutional Law and the First Amendment at Yale Law School. He founded and directs Yale’s Information Society Project. His many books include The Cycles of Constitutional Time, Living Originalism, and Constitutional Redemption.