Making Legal History

"Presents ten essays on the process of identifying and interpreting archival sources - the foundation of an array of methods of writing American legal history. The historians featured here have all either identified a body of sources not previously explored or devised a new method of interrogating sources already known. The result is a kaleidoscopic examination of the historian's task and of the research methods and interpretative strategies that characterize the rich, complex field of American constitutional and legal history. These essays all honor the guidance and example of William E. Nelson, the Edward Weinfield Professor of Law at New York University School of Law. For more than four decades, Nelson has produced some of the most original and creative work in the field of American legal and constitutional history. Both Nelson's substantive arguments and the scope and depth of his research into previously untapped primary sources have shaped his prize-winning books, which have blazed new trails for historians. These essays heed and exemplify Nelson's advice that historians ought to identify, explore, and analyze new bodies of sources to produce work that will make a difference to the field"--Unedited summary from book jacket.