In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade legalized abortion in America. The somewhat shaky scaffold supporting that decision drew together social struggles; the rights of women, physicians, and the state; and a slew of earlier cases on birth control and sexuality that had crafted a right to privacy never written into the Constitution. The vast size of David J. Garrow"s gloriously sprawling Liberty and Sexuality allows him to tease out the miniscule fibers that would eventually be woven into Roe. While heavy hitters like Margaret Sanger and Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun are well drawn, it"s the bit players who really have a chance to shine here. When James G. Morris, a Roman Catholic father of five, reads in the newspapers about a birth control clinic violating an antiquated Connecticut law in the 1960s, he doggedly calls police, prosecutor, and mayor until a reluctant investigation is kicked off. Marie Wilson Tindall, who had been to the clinic, agrees to have her testimony and contraband contraceptive jelly duly entered into the record to start a landmark court battle that would lay the foundation for Roe. And over the years, a veritable army of legal scholars, law clerks, judges, and regular citizens took part in an increasingly acrimonious debate over reproductive rights and free expression of sexuality. Well-crafted prose and meticulous journalistic footwork make this a definitive book for anyone intrigued by the ponderous mechanisms of legal and social change. --Francesca Coltrera