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The Age of Reform - the hundred years from 1820 to 1920 - has become synonymous with innovation and change but this period was also in many ways a deeply conservative and cautious one. With reform came reaction and revolution and this was as true of the law as it was of literature, art and technology. The age of Great Exhibitions and Great Reform Acts was also the age of newly systemized police forces, courts and prisons.
A Cultural History of Law in the Age of Reform presents an overview of the period with a focus on human stories located in the crush between legal formality and social reform: the newly uniformed police, criminal mugshots, judge and jury, the shame of child labor, and the need for neighborliness in the crowded urban and increasingly industrial landscapes of Europe and the United States.
Drawing upon a wealth of visual and textual sources,
A Cultural History of Law in the Age of Reform presents essays that examine key cultural case studies of the period on the themes of justice, constitution, codes, agreements, arguments, property and possession, wrongs, and the legal profession.
List of contents
List of Illustrations
Notes on Contributors
Series Preface
Introduction: Revolution, Reform and Reaction, Ian Ward, Newcastle University, UK
1. Justice: Visual Representations of the Subjects of the Law, Linda Mulcahy, London School of Economics, UK
2. Constitution: Utopia, Limited or a Limited Utopia? John Snape, University of Warwick, UK
3. Codes: Police Uniform and Reform of the Image of Law Enforcement, Jane Tynan, Central St Martins, University of the Arts, UK
4. Agreements: The Social Contract and Child Labor in Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “The Cry of the Children”, Nancy E. Johnson, SUNY at New Paltz, USA
5. Arguments: Jury Lawfinding and Constitutional Review in 1840s New Hampshire, K Crosby, Newcastle University, UK
6. Property and Possession: New Languages of Property, Kieran Dolin, University of Western Australia, Australia
7. Wrongs: Negligence, Neighbourliness, and the Duty of Care in Nineteenth-Century Narrative, Jan-Melissa Schramm, University of Cambridge, UK
8. Legal Profession: Dickens, Daumier and The Man of Law, Gary Watt, University of Warwick, UK
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Emanuele Conte is Professor of Medieval and Modern Legal History at Roma Tre University, Italy.Laurent Mayali is Lloyd M. Robbins Professor of Law at Berkeley Law, University of California, USA.
Summary
The Age of Reform – the hundred years from 1820 to 1920 - has become synonymous with innovation and change but this period was also in many ways a deeply conservative and cautious one. With reform came reaction and revolution and this was as true of the law as it was of literature, art and technology. The age of Great Exhibitions and Great Reform Acts was also the age of newly systemized police forces, courts and prisons. A Cultural History of Law in the Age of Reform presents an overview of the period with a focus on human stories located in the crush between legal formality and social reform: the newly uniformed police, criminal mugshots, judge and jury, the shame of child labor, and the need for neighborliness in the crowded urban and increasingly industrial landscapes of Europe and the United States.
Drawing upon a wealth of visual and textual sources, A Cultural History of Law in the Age of Reform presents essays that examine key cultural case studies of the period on the themes of justice, constitution, codes, agreements, arguments, property and possession, wrongs, and the legal profession.
Foreword
A thematic overview of law and its role in Western society and culture between 1820 and 1920.
