Inventing American Exceptionalism by Amalia Kessler won the 2018 John Phillip Reid Book Award given by the American Society for Legal History "Adversarial procedure’s presence is old. But America’s conscious idea (or ideal or ideology) of adversarialism as the exclusionary motif of civil procedure is young. This adversarialism has an origin, a history, and, most importantly, a set of social ... Read moreeffects separate from those of mere adversarial procedure. Amalia Kessler draws this original distinction and develops all its consequences. Every proceduralist will have to read her book."—Kevin M. Clermont, Cornell Law School "Learned and thoughtful, crisply articulated and brilliantly conceived, Inventing American Exceptionalism offers a powerful reinterpretation of our legal past.  More than that, it holds trenchant prescriptions for our badly broken system of justice today."—John Witt, Yale University "During the 19th century, Amalia Kessler shows us, various modes of judge-dominated, non-adversarial adjudication arose as alternatives to American 'adversarial legalism.' Inventing American Exceptionalism provides a fascinating, lucid, and politically illuminating account of how  those alternative systems were transformed or defeated and of the enduring consequences of these developments."—Robert A. Kagan, author of Adversarial Legalism: The American Way of Law Show Less