The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan: People, Law, and Politics by David Gardner Chardavoyne (review)

110 The Michigan Historical Review institutions brought not only federal powers into the region; it also brought money—a key element in the growth and stabilization of the trans-Appalachian West. Divided into six chapters with an introduction and an epilogue, one of the highlights of the book is that footnotes appear at the bottom of each page, which makes for handy reference. An array of primary sources from archives in the United States and Canada, together with a plethora of secondary sources, were utilized in preparation of this manuscript and offer a tantalizing look at the region’s formalization. The chapters follow a chronological progression, beginning with the British and the American Revolution and, as Bergmann describes it, the “property war” between the Anglos and Natives. The author reviews major battles, treaties, and generals including Arthur St. Clair, Anthony Wayne, the battle of Fallen Timbers, and the Treaty of Greenville. Anglo settlers took over the land, and British military and economic influence withdrew into Canada. Federal institutions moved West as described by Bergmann in chapters titled “A Bordered Land,” “Webs of Commerce,” and “Partnerships.” The economy was strengthened by the presence of federal institutions such as the post office and Indian agents and the military. Market capitalism ruled the day. Bergman quotes author Stephen Rockwell, “Big government won the West.” (p. 255). With its presentation of facts and the organizational theme of the federal government’s role in the development of the West, this book will be of interest to readers who seek a detail-filled text and a new look at history of those former Big Ten states. Patricia Ann Owens Lawrenceville, Illinois David Gardner Chardavoyne. The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan: People, Law, and Politics. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2012. Pp. 440. Appendices. Bibliographical notes. Illustrations. Index. Photographs. Cloth, $39.95. Encouraged by the Federal Judicial Center, America’s federal, district, and circuit courts have been actively working to record their histories for both legal and public audiences. David Chardavoyne adds an excellent volume to that endeavor with his study of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. The court had jurisdiction for all of Michigan until it was divided into east and west Book Reviews 111 districts in 1863 (with shifting boundaries that are carefully mapped in the text). Throughout its history, the court has indeed been a focal point of people, law, and politics. The author strives to develop topics that allow the court to be placed in its larger state and national contexts. Biographies of judges and other court personnel provide a look at the people of the court. Illustrations and descriptions take us into the courthouses and courtrooms where the jurists worked. Chardavoyne does a particularly good job of handling the complexities of the court’s relationship to other intermediate federal courts. Selected cases allow us to see the workings of federal law in admiralty, bankruptcy, civil rights, wartime emergency, and other matters of public and private concern. Chardavoyne displays a deft touch in describing the details of particular cases as he simultaneously articulates their larger contexts. His handling of the Great Depression and World War II is especially strong. He also places the procedures and motives of judicial appointments within changing state and national scenes, discussing the longer-term consequences of those appointments. Students of Michigan politics will find the book of particular interest. District-court histories normally strive to identify particular economic and social features of the district, evaluating the ways in which the court responded to these features. Chardavoyne does this with special attention to Great Lakes shipping, automotive manufacture, immigration patterns, and social unrest. His treatment of ethnicity and its role in the civil rights years is particularly interesting. Volumes of this type necessarily require a great deal of selectivity. In choosing which topics to privilege, the author emphasized the court’s first century. No serious mention is made of its territorial predecessor, and relatively little attention is given to the period after 1990 beyond a biographical survey of the court’s judges. As a result, The United States Court for the Eastern District of Michigan leaves readers wanting...