The wonder of books

Blog series Americas and Oceania Collections

Author Emma Long, 2025 Eccles Institute Visiting Scholar based at the University of East Anglia.

Many scholars, especially in the Humanities, will have had the experience of looking though materials, finding a reference constantly cited, and realising that it’s not in your local (university) library. That means either requesting an interlibrary loan or tracking down a copy via the myriad online sellers of older academic books. While both are brilliant options, neither gets it to you in the moment, as you are thinking about its significance. Unless, of course, you are at the British Library where a quick search of the catalogue and submission of an online order can have said item at your desk in around an hour (or a couple of days, if stored offsite in Yorkshire).

My research currently focuses on the US Supreme Court and the ways in which it has been viewed at times of political tension in the US (including the current moment). A big part of my research has been tracking down books written about the Court by academics, politicians, lawyers, and other commentators in the past 120 years or so to see how they have written about the Court’s role. Being able to spend time the British Library in London as a 2025 Eccles Institute Fellow was enormously important in helping me to obtain a large amount of information in a short amount of time.

During my fellowship I accessed over 50 individual titles, the earliest published in 1903, the most recent in 2024. Collectively they tell a story of an institution deeply embedded in the American political system but equally seen as separate from it, accepted for its politics-adjacent activities during times of relative political stability but easily criticised for meddling at times of political upheaval. These titles have been critical to the story I am currently writing.

Of all the books, perhaps my favourite (I think that’s allowed?) is a 1936 book by Drew Pearson and Robert Allen called The Nine Old Men (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran & Co. Inc.).

Pearson and Allen were journalists, best known for their satirical newspaper column, ‘The Washington Merry-Go-Round.’ This book, published shortly after the new Supreme Court building was opened – and with its image embossed into the book’s cover – explored the recent history of battles between President Franklin Roosevelt and the Court over the New Deal. Designed to try and help the country recover from the Great Depression, FDR’s plans were scuppered by the Court’s resistance to his programmes. Written in Pearson and Allen’s indomitable style, it offered important insight but also some very funny satire, livening the process of research no end. If only all research could be quite so diverting!