Description based upon print version of record.

A Companion to American Legal History; Copyright; Contents; Notes on Contributors; Introduction; Part I Chronological Overviews; 1 Reconsidering the Seventeenth Century: Legal History in the Americas; Introduction; The Realms of Legal History; Regional Interpretations of Law; Connections or Comparisons?; Trials and Legal Processes; Conclusion; 2 What's Done and Undone: Colonial American Legal History, 1700��{136}��1775; Introduction; New England; The Mid-Atlantic; Upper and Lower South; Special Topics: Slavery, Women, Crime and Violence, Comparisons; Trends; 3 1775��{136}��1815.

Political Theory, Law, and "Constitution"Empire and Constitution; Building and Testing the Constitutions; Institutions: The Federal Courts; Legal History and Merging Disciplines; State and Local Legal History; Women and Law; Children and Household Law; Labor Law; Slavery; Conclusion: More Areas for Further Exploration; 4 The Antebellum Era Through Civil War; A Transformation? And If So, What Kind?; Regulation and the Market: An Economic Interpretation of the Antebellum Era; Jurisprudence and The Perspective of Literature: A Sentimental Interpretation of the Law.

Legal Education and the Legal ProfessionRace and Trial; Civil War; Needs and Opportunities; 5 Beyond Classical Legal Thought: Law and Governance in Postbellum America, 1865��{136}��1920; Classical Legal Thought; Jurisprudential Pluralism; "Private" Law in Postbellum America; Public Law in Postbellum America; Conclusion; 6 American Legal History, 1920��{136}��1970; Law in the 1920s; The New Deal Constitutional Revolution; The Rights Revolution; Conclusion; Part II Individuals and Groups; 7 Native Americans; 8 African Americans in Slavery; 9 African Americans in Freedom.

Reconstruction and the Origins of Jim CrowCrime, Punishment and Racial Violence; The Black Freedom Struggle; African Americans and the Law since the Civil Rights Movement; 10 Women's Legal History; The Colonial Period; The Revolution that Was Not; Married Women's Property Acts; The Post-Civil War Suffrage Movement; Women and the Practice of Law; The Progressive Era through the New Deal; The Revolution that Was: Second Wave Feminism; Conclusion; 11 Families; Beginnings; The Force of Law; Families and Social Policy; The Future of Families.

12 Who Belongs? Immigrants and the Law in American HistoryColonial and Early National Immigration Regulation; Foundations of the Modern System: 1870s-1920s; Challenges of Wartime and Economic Depression: 1920s-1960s; The Civil Rights Era and Beyond; Conclusion: New Directions; 13 The Legal Profession; Part III Subject Areas; 14 Law and the Economy of Early America: Markets, Institutions of Exchange, and Labor; Progress Narratives and Their Radical Critique in Law; Consumption and Commodity Studies; Institutions of Exchange; The Ambiguous Place of Labor; Conclusion.

15 Law and the Economy in the United States, 1820��{136}��2000.

<i>A</i> <i>Companion to American Legal History</i> presents a compilation of the most recent writings from leading scholars on American legal history from the colonial era through the late twentieth century. <ul><li>Presents up-to-date research describing the key debates in American legal history</li><li>Reflects the current state of American legal history research and points readers in the direction of future research</li><li>Represents an ideal companion for graduate and law students seeking an introduction to the field, the key questions, and future research ideas</li></ul>

Available electronically via the Internet.