Fall 2009 Law No.: LAW9018 Sched. No.: 109835525

American Social and Legal History* Section 1 X Brown-Nagin, Tomiko

This seminar considers issues in 20th-century social and constitutional history, with particular emphasis on matters of race and inequality. Students read constitutional cases, works of historical scholarship, and primary source material. The seminar seeks to achieve four main goals. It familiarizes students with the distinct historiographical and methodological traditions of legal and social historians. It identifies the bundle of social, political, and economic problems that lawyers sought to combat through “civil rights” litigation. It illuminates how civil rights lawyers interacted with non-lawyer activists in social movements, exploring consensus as well as conflict, where appropriate. Ultimately, it identifies the circumstances under which legal and social change occurred during the civil rights era. The seminar conceives inequality broadly and follows the civil rights movement through various stages; thus, while most sessions focus on the struggle for racial equality, the seminar discusses aspects of the women’s rights, labor, anti-poverty, and welfare rights movements, as well.

COURSE REQUIREMENT: Paper required