Many Legalities of Early America - (Published by the Omohundro Institute of Early American Histo) by Christopher L Tomlins & Bruce H Mann

About the Book

Seventeen essays use the concept of "legality" to explore ways in which early Americans ordered their relationships as individuals, groups, classes, communities, and states. Addressing issues of gender, ethnicity, family, patriarchy, culture, and dependence, contributors explore the transatlantic context of early American law, the negotiation between European and indigenous cultures, and the transformation of many legalities to a uniform legal culture.

Book Synopsis

This collection of seventeen original essays reshapes the field of early American legal history not by focusing simply on law, or even on the relationship between law and society, but by using the concept of "legality" to explore the myriad ways in which the people of early America ordered their relationships with one another, whether as individuals, groups, classes, communities, or states.

Addressing issues of gender, ethnicity, family, patriarchy, culture, and dependence, contributors explore the transatlantic context of early American law, the negotiation between European and indigenous legal cultures, the multiple social contexts of the rule of law, and the transformation of many legalities into an increasingly uniform legal culture. Taken together, these essays reveal the extraordinary diversity and complexity of the roots of early America's legal culture.

Contributors are Mary Sarah Bilder, Holly Brewer, James F. Brooks, Richard Lyman Bushman, Christine Daniels, Cornelia Hughes Dayton, David Barry Gaspar, Katherine Hermes, John G. Kolp, David Thomas Konig, James Muldoon, William M. Offutt Jr., Ann Marie Plane, A. G. Roeber, Terri L. Snyder, and Linda L. Sturtz.

Review Quotes

A giant step forward! By conceptualizing legal issues as social and political legalities, these essays add a new dimension to the study of early American law and make it accessible to all historians. (James Henretta, University of Maryland)

This is a rich volume that will stand for some time as the single most important text on the relation of law to life in our early history. (Stanley N. Katz, Princeton University)

This is a book of formidable research, sophisticated analysis, and graceful writing. (Linda K. Kerber, University of Iowa)

About the Author

Christopher L. Tomlins is a senior research fellow at the American Bar Foundation in Chicago. Bruce H. Mann is professor of law and history at the University of Pennsylvania.