HIST 348 U.S. Legal History: A Survey

This course is a survey of U.S. legal history from the colonial origins of the U.S. Constitution to the "rights revolution" of the 1960s and 1970s and the "revival" of conservative constitutionalism in the 1970s and 1980s. The course will emphasize the tension between two ideological perspectives on the role of government. Should government function primarily to ensure collective rights and provide social control or to protect individual rights and liberties? These two perspectives on the function of government are evident in the shaping of law and public policy over the course of U.S. history. Students will learn how the concepts of individualism, rights, and equality have changed over time and how collective behavior and social movements have recast constitutional principles and judicial practices. We will explore these concepts and developments through consideration of the following subjects: commerce and the industrial state, civil rights and civil liberties, women and citizenship, and liberal versus conservative constitutionalism.