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Volume I of the Cambridge History of Law in America begins 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. The Cambridge History of Law in America has been made possible by the generous support of the American Bar Foundation.
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the cambridge history of law in america volume i Early America (1580–1815) Law stands at the center of modern American life. Since the 1950s, American historians have produced an extraordinarily rich and diverse literature that has vastly expanded our knowledge of this familiar and vital yet complex and multifaceted phenomenon. But few attempts have been made to take full account of law’s American history. The Cambridge History of Law in America has been designed for just this purpose. In three volumes we put on display all the intellectual vitality and variety of contemporary American legal history. We present as comprehensive and authoritative an account as possible of the present understanding and range of interpretation of the history of American law. We suggest where future research may lead. American legal history has long treated the era of the founding of the republic and the early nineteenth century as its proper point of departure. Volume I of this History disputes that tendency, beginning our account of law in America with the very first moments of English colonization and settlement of the North American landmass. It follows those processes across 200 years to the eventual creation and stabilization of the American republic. Colonization, the fate of the seaboard’s indigenous peoples, the creation of structures of jurisdiction and governance, patterns of imperial communication, the migration (voluntary and involuntary) of peoples and the disciplines to which they were subject, the construction of essential social categories and institutions (families, labor forces, plantations, slavery), economic and commercial activity, religion, the strains and ruptures of empire, revolutionary and constitutional politics: these are the material and imaginative worlds of early American law. All this is encompassed in our first volume. The Cambridge History of Law in America has been made possible by the generous support of the American Bar Foundation. Volumes II and III cover the history of law, respectively, from the foundation of the republic until the immediate aftermath of World War I and from the 1920s until the early twenty-first century. Michael Grossberg is the Sally M. Reahard Professor of History and a Professor of Law at Indiana University. His research focuses on the relationship between law and social change, particularly the intersection of law and the family. Christopher Tomlins is Senior Research Fellow at the American Bar Foundation in Chicago. His research encompasses the relationship among labor, colonization, and law in early America; the conceptual history of police in Anglo-American law and politics; and the place of historical materialism in legal theory. Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008 Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008 the cambridge history of law in america volume i Early America (1580 –1815) Edited by MICHAEL GROSSBERG Indiana University CHRISTOPHER TOMLINS The American Bar Foundation, Chicago Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008 cambridge university press Cambridge, New