HIST8645

This course explores the interaction between law, politics, and culture in American society, concentrating on the period from the Revolution through the New Deal. Topics include: democracy and the rule of law; slavery; the public-private distinction; Civil War and Reconstruction; industrialization; expansion of the federal administrative state; law and the human sciences; crime and punishment; legal education and the role of the lawyer in the American polity. Readings will include primary legal sources, such as treatises, statutes, constitutions, and landmark cases, as well as contemporary religious, scientific, and literary works, which will help to situate the legal materials in broader cultural context. Several secondary sources will also be considered, both for insights into the topics covered, and to illustrate various approaches to legal-historical analysis. The course will encourage critical examination of these sources with the aim of clarifying how law has figured in the history and historiography of the United States. No previous background in American history is assumed.

A-F - A-F Grade Basis

02400

No

Periodic Spring