In The Center Holds, James E. Simon provides the first behind-the-scenes look at the private deliberations and deep disagreements of the justices of the Rehnquist Court at a critical juncture in the history of the modern Supreme Court. But more than that, he gives us the inside story of a conservative judicial revolution that failed.

Simon focuses on four crucial areas of civil rights and liberties - racial discrimination, abortion, criminal law, and First Amendment freedoms - to chronicle the most intense confrontations between the old liberal order and the emerging conservative majority. He takes us into the courtroom where the cases were argued, into the closed conferences where they were fiercely debated, and into the justices' private chambers where strong personalities and wills often collided.

In fascinating detail, Simon shows that it was the internal dynamic among the justices - and their desire to stake out independent positions - that ultimately discouraged the wholesale revolution that Reagan, Bush, and Rehnquist hoped to achieve. This is a compelling, behind-the-scenes account of how the justices fought - sometimes diplomatically, sometimes with bare-knuckled determination - for the soul of the Court, and of how, in the end, the center held.