Rehabilitating Lochner: Defending Individual Rights Against Progressive Reform

"As every law student knows, Lochner was a case in which a court packed with business sympathizers stuck it to the little guy in a shameless display of judicial activism. But, like a surprisingly large number of things everyone knows, this conventional wisdom is almost entirely wrong, and David E. Bernstein's new book, Rehabilitating Lochner, makes clear just how wrong it is - and how and why the Lochner narrative became established in the legal academy.... The false narrative of Lochner has controlled the past for decades but Bernstein's clear and incisive work may wrest that control away and move us back to the truth." (Glenn Reynolds, Commentary) "David E. Bernstein attempts the grand task of 'correcting decades of erroneous accounts' and succeeds with aplomb, and notable timeliness. The story of how Joseph Lochner fought legislators and unions to bake his goods in freedom goes especially well with tea." (National Review) "David E. Bernstein takes issue with conventional wisdom and argues that if one understands the larger context and broader stream of historical development, Lochner was a 'good law' at the time and, despite the fact that it was overruled, its core principles remain good constitutional law today. This is a delightful and informative book that deserves a broad audience." (Choice)"