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A Companion to American Legal History presents a compilation of the most recent writings from leading scholars on American legal history from the colonial era through the late twentieth century.
* Presents up-to-date research describing the key debates in American legal history
* Reflects the current state of American legal history research and points readers in the direction of future research
* Represents an ideal companion for graduate and law students seeking an introduction to the field, the key questions, and future research ideas
List of contents
Notes on Contributors x
Introduction 1
Sally E. Hadden and Alfred L. Brophy
Part I Chronological Overviews 5
1 Reconsidering the Seventeenth Century: Legal History in the Americas 7
Elizabeth Dale
2 What's Done and Undone: Colonial American Legal History, 1700.1775 26
Sally E. Hadden
3 1775.1815 46
Ellen Holmes Pearson
4 The Antebellum Era Through Civil War 67
Alfred L. Brophy
5 Beyond Classical Legal Thought: Law and Governance in Postbellum America, 1865.1920 86
Roman J. Hoyos
6 American Legal History, 1920.1970 105
Christopher W. Schmidt
Part II Individuals and Groups 125
7 Native Americans 127
Christian McMillen
8 African Americans in Slavery 152
Thomas J. Davis
9 African Americans in Freedom 171
James Campbell
10 Women's Legal History 190
Felice Batlan
11 Families 209
David S. Tanenhaus
12 Who Belongs? Immigrants and the Law in American History 228
Allison Brownell Tirres
13 The Legal Profession 247
Mark E. Steiner
Part III Subject Areas 267
14 Law and the Economy of Early America: Markets, Institutions of Exchange, and Labor 269
Christine Desan
15 Law and the Economy in the United States, 1820.2000 289
Harwell Wells
16 Law and Labor in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries 308
Deborah Dinner
17 Siting the Legal History of Poverty: Below, Above, and Amidst 329
Felicia Kornbluh and Karen Tani
18 Taxes 349
Robin L. Einhorn
19 Law and the Administrative State 367
Joanna L. Grisinger
20 Law and Religion 387
Steven K. Green
21 Legal History and the Military 406
Elizabeth L. Hillman
22 Criminal Law and Justice in America 422
Elizabeth Dale
23 Intellectual Property 441
Steven Wilf
Part IV Legal Thought 461
24 Law and Literature 463
Jeannine Marie DeLombard
25 Legal Thought from Blackstone to Kent and Story 484
Steven J. Macias
26 American Jurisprudence in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries 506
James D. Schmidt
27 Critical Legal Studies 524
John Henry Schlegel
28 The International Context: An Imperial Perspective on American Legal History 543
Clara Altman
Index 562
About the author
Sally E. Hadden is Associate Professor of History at Western Michigan University, where she teaches legal history and the history of early America. She is the author of
Slave Patrols: Law and Violence in Virginia and the Carolinas (2001) and co-editor of
Signposts: New Directions in Southern Legal History (with P. Minter, 2013).
Alfred L. Brophy is Judge John J. Parker Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, where he teaches property and trusts and estates. His books include
Reparations: Pro and Con (2006),
Integrating Spaces: Property Law and Race (with A. Lopez and K. Murray, 2011), and
Transformations in American Legal History (with D. Hamilton, 2010).
Summary
A Companion to American Legal History presents a compilation of the most recent writings from leading scholars on American legal history from the colonial era through the late twentieth century.
* Presents up-to-date research describing the key debates in American legal history
* Reflects the current state of American legal history research and points readers in the direction of future research
* Represents an ideal companion for graduate and law students seeking an introduction to the field, the key questions, and future research ideas
Report
"A Companion to American Legal History is an essential compendium of the state of the art, a reliable guide to a discipline that is daily crossing boundaries and probing more deeply into the role law has played in American life."
--David Konig, Washington University in St. Louis
"A remarkable collection of first-rate historians have contributed to this indispensable guide to the burgeoning field of American legal history. A must-read for students and scholars alike."
--Ariela Gross, University of Southern California
"When a field grows as explosively as American legal history has over the past generation, a volume like this becomes necessary and useful. These essays, collectively and individually, capture the scholarly moment with grace, good humor, and erudition."
--Hendrik Hartog, Princeton University
