Building the Judiciary: Law, Courts, and the Politics of Institutional Development. By Justin Crowe. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012. 328p. $80.00 cloth, $35.00 paper.

Justin Crowe has written an accessible, thorough, and compelling history of the institutional development of the US Supreme Court and the federal judiciary it sits atop, from their inconspicuous inception in February 1790 to their current status as, perhaps, the most powerful judiciary in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]