James Stoner's first book, Common Law and Liberal Theory: Coke, Hobbes, and the Origins of American Constitutionalism, was hailed as "forceful and wise...powerful and convincing" by the American Historical Review and "a stunning achievement" by the Journal of Politics. In that work, which provided historical background to the Founding era, he focused on the common law almost exclusively as a mode of legal thought. He now amplifies and extends his thinking on this subject with a study that transcends such "formalistic" limits and reveals how constitutional law has developed since the Founding. Common Law Liberty is a rediscovery and reassertion of the common law's central contributions to and enduring impact on American constitutional law. Stoner illuminates the common law's ties to an entire way of life, inextricably linked to the Founding and American constitutionalism, influenced by Christianity, closely connected to the development of free enterprise, and open to the influences of modern science and democracy. Stoner delineates two common laws: one understoo

James R. Stoner, Jr., is an associate professor of political science at Louisiana State University.