Welcome to our ongoing celebration of the Library of Congress National Book Festival. Each weekday, we will feature a video presentation from among the thousands of authors who have appeared at the National Book Festival and as part of our new year-long series, National Book Festival Presents. Mondays will feature topical nonfiction; Tuesday: poetry or literary fiction; Wednesday: history, biography, memoir; Thursday: popular fiction; and Friday: authors who write for children and teens. Please enjoy, and make sure to explore our full National Book Festival video collection!
The Contemporary Life stage of the 2012 Library of Congress National Book Festival welcomed then-New York Times Supreme Court writer Linda Greenhouse to discuss her book “The U.S. Supreme Court: A Very Short Introduction.” Sarah Caldwell of the Library’s Congressional Research Service introduced Greenhouse, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1998 for her “consistently illuminating coverage” of the high court.
Greenhouse is currently the Knight Distinguished Journalist in Residence and Joseph M. Goldstein Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School. She begins by saying that what “is so interesting about the court … is the extent to which the court has really written its own story.” She notes that Article III of the Constitution, which established the judicial system, hardly mentions the court’s role. For example, “we take for granted” the court’s power to rule on the constitutionality of laws. Q&A begins at 34:15.
The 2020 Library of Congress National Book Festival will celebrate its 20th birthday this year. You can get up-to-the-minute news, schedule updates and other important festival information by subscribing to this blog. The festival is made possible by the generosity of sponsors. You too can support the festival by making a gift now.