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The Cambridge History of Law in America Volume 1, Early America (1580–1815)

  • Publication: Cambridge University Press

2008, Christopher L. Tomlins, Cambridge University Press

Cover of The Cambridge History of Law in America Volume 1, Early America (1580–1815)

(eds. with Michael Grossberg) Cambridge University Press: New York, NY; 2008.

Law stands at the center of modern American life. Since the 1950s, American historians have produced an extraordinarily rich and diverse account of law and legal institutions in American history. But even though our knowledge has increased enormously, few attempts have been made to draw its many parts together in a summary and synthesis of the history of law in America. The Cambridge History of Law in America has been designed for just this purpose. Sixty of the leading historians of law in the United States have been brought together in one enterprise to present the most comprehensive and authoritative account possible of the history of American law.

The Cambridge History of Law in America has been designed for just this purpose. Sixty of the leading historians of law in the United States have been brought together in one enterprise to present the most comprehensive and authoritative account possible of the history of American law. The Cambridge History of Law in America has been made possible by the generous support of the American Bar Foundation.

One of the most exciting recent trends in the history of American law has been the proliferation of scholarship on law in early America. Volume I of the Cambridge History of Law in America reaps the advantage of this proliferation, beginning the account of law in America with the very first moments of European colonization and settlement of the North American landmass. It follows those processes across two hundred years to the eventual creation and stabilization of the American republic. The book discusses the place of law in regard to colonization and empire, indigenous peoples, government and jurisdiction, population migrations, economic and commercial activity, religion, the creation of social institutions, and revolutionary politics. American legal history long treated the era of the founding of the republic and the early nineteenth century as the beginning of American law. Volume I disputes that tendency and corrects it.