Tort Law and the Construction of Change studies the interaction of law and social change in American history. Tort law-civil law made by judges, not legislators-is traditionally thought to arise out of legal precedent. But Kenneth S. Abraham and G. Edward White show that American judges over the course of the previous two centuries also paid close ......
America's War for Independence dramatically affected the speed and nature of broader social, cultural, and political changes including those shaping the place and roles of women in society. Women fought the American Revolution in many ways, in a literal no less than a figurative sense. Whether Loyalist or Patriot, Indigenous or immigrant enslaved ......
How a Small Foundation Changed the Model for Environmental Conservation
How one organization took on industrial pollution--and the lessons for our new century In 1977, one forward-thinking judge took an ecological disaster--the poisoning of the James River by Allied Chemical--and turned it into a great environmental-protection legacy. The $8 million payment made by Allied would go on to fund the game-changing ......
Apart from a handful of exotic--and almost completely unreliable--tales surrounding his life, Richard Potter is almost unknown today. Two hundred years ago, however, he was the most popular entertainer in America--the first showman, in fact, to win truly nationwide fame. Working as a magician and ventriloquist, he personified for an entire ......
Friendship and Betrayal on the Brink of the Vietnam Conflict
For two Americans in Saigon in 1963, the personal and the political combine to spark the drama of a lifetime Before it spread into a tragic war that defined a generation, the conflict in Vietnam smoldered as a guerrilla insurgency and a diplomatic nightmare. Into this volatile country stepped Frederick "Fritz" Nolting, the US ambassador, and his ......
The Punitive Turn explores the historical, political, economic, and sociocultural roots of mass incarceration, as well as its collateral costs and consequences. Giving significant attention to the exacting toll that incarceration takes on inmates, their families, their communities, and society at large, the volume's contributors investigate the ......
Experiences of Early African American Students at the University of Virginia
The Key to the Door frames and highlights the stories of some of the first black students at the University of Virginia. This inspiring account of resilience and transformation offers a diversity of experiences and perspectives through first-person narratives of black students during the University of Virginia's era of incremental desegregation. ......
Humboldt and Jefferson explores the relationship between two fascinating personalities: the Prussian explorer, scientist, and geographer Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) and the American statesman, architect, and naturalist Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826). In the wake of his famous expedition through the Spanish colonies in the spring of 1804, ......
Race and Resilience at a Northern Virginia Crossroads
The compelling history of a racially integrated, and now forgotten, community in northern Virginia Established by two Black entrepreneurs and their families, who provided the economic engine for its initial success, the village of Ilda flourished as a racially integrated community before the Jim Crow era. More than simply a history of a racially ......
