Setting his examination of the Neutrality Crisis of 1793 against the fiery backdrop of marauding French privateers, the French foreign minister's diplomatic fiasco, and pro-French rallies in the port of Charleston, South Carolina, William R. Casto brings to life the first test of President George Washington's administration to establish a national foreign policy and to implement the separation-of-powers principles of the U.S. Constitution. Casto's Foreign Affairs and the Constitution in the Age of Fighting Sail recounts the efforts of the French revolutionary republic to obtain support from...

William R. Casto sheds a new light on America's federal judiciary and the changing legal landscape with his detailed examination of the Supreme Court's formative years. In a study that spans the period from the Court's tentative beginnings through the appointment of its third chief justice, Casto reveals a judicial body quite different in orientation and philosophy from the current Supreme Court and one with a legacy of enduring significance for the U.S. legal system. Casto portrays the founding of the Supreme Court as a conscious effort to help the newly established government deal more...