History A 421: Topics: American Legal History I Prof. E.B. Monroe
Fall, 2002 Office: CA 529
Classroom: CA 215 email: emonroe@iupui.edu
Office hours: Tues. and Thurs. 2:15-3:00 Telephone: 278-2255
And by appointment
GOALS: This course will treat the historical development of United States legal history. Students will gain a substantive understanding of the broad developmental themes in the history of colonial and nineteenth-century American law. They will also be introduced to different methologoies of historical and legal inquiry. In order to better understand the relationship of methodology to research results, each student will prepare a research design on some aspect of American legal development. Assignments related to design development will be integral parts of weekly activities.
METHOD: Discussion and intellectual exchange are important components of this course. Stress will be placed on thoroughly understanding a relatively modest amount of weekly reading. Each week students will be expected to be familiar with selected essays or documents as well as appropriate chapters of their texts. The documents will provide the basis for discussion, and the analysis of particular issues in the documents will expand to the general readings. Each session is designed around a theme or issue of legal history. The themes will be presented in roughly chronological order.
PRINCIPLES OF UNDERGRADUATE LEARNING: Students will be expected to read, write, and discuss the materials presented in this course. In written assignments particularly, students will be expected to analyze evidence, argument, and conclusions of the authors of assigned texts (and lectures) to reach reasoned conclusions. Students will synthesize the materials of legal history to better understand how the American legal system and interpretations of it over time have influenced our cultural traditions.
EVALUATION: A mid-term and final exam will test the student’s knowledge of the material covered. In addition to the exams students will prepare a brief review of the relevant secondary literature, a thesis statement, an annotated bibliography of about twenty items, and a research design that explains the major issues they are treating, the research problems they could encounter, and the main arguments they may develop. A student may explore the history of some aspect of the criminal law in a specific jurisdiction rather than attempting to design a project on the development of homicide in America. Topics may be either federal, state, or local in character. All students are expected to participate in class.
COURSE GRADE: The midterm is worth 20%, the final exam is worth 25%. The thesis statement and review of the literature is worth 15%, the annotated bibliography is worth 15% and the research design is worth 25%. Because I expect all students to participate in class failure to do so will result in a reduction in the final grade for the course of as much as 10%.
POLICIES:
All students are expected to attend and participate in every class. All assignments are due on the specified dates.
A grade of zero (0) will be assigned to any work which has been produced by cheating or plagiarism. The definitions (from the Indiana University School of Liberal Arts Bulletin are:
Cheating: Cheating is dishonesty of any kind with respect to examinations, course assignments, alterations of records, or illegal possession of examinations. It is the responsibility of the student not only to abstain from cheating, but, in addition, to avoid the appearance of cheating and to guard against making it possible for others to cheat. Any student who helps another student to cheat is as guilty of cheating as the student assisted. The student should also do everything possible to induce respect for the examining process and for honesty in the performance of assigned tasks in or out of class.
Plagiarism: Plagiarism is the offering of the work of someone else as one’s own. Honesty requires that any ideas or materials taken from another source for either written or oral use must be fully acknowledged. The language or ideas taken from another may range from isolated formulas, sentences, or paragraphs to entire articles copied from books, periodicals, speeches, or the writings of other students. The offering of materials assembled or collected by others in the form of projects or collections without acknowledgment is also considered plagiarism. Any student who fails to give credit for ideas or materials taken from another source is guilty of plagiarism.
A grade of “incomplete” will not be assigned except in the event of a catastrophe such as serious personal illness or death of a family member. All incompletes must be arranged in advance of the final day of class. Arrangement for an incomplete will require the instructor’s approval of a signed statement from the student about the reason for requesting the incomplete and a date when all remaining work will be submitted.
CLASS CANCELLATIONS: If class is cancelled by the university or the instructor or you have an acceptable excuse for absence, written assignments are due to the History Department Office on the day the university reopens or within two days of your absence. Be sure to get the department secretary to initial and date your paper.
TEXTS:
Kermit L. Hall, The Magic Mirror: Law and American History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989).
Kermit L. Hall, William M. Wiecek, Paul Finkelman. American Legal History: Cases and Materials. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2d ed., 1996).
WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS:
General format: All assignments for this course must be typewritten, one-inch margins, double-spaced, and composed in good grammar and style with no spelling errors. All projects should be proofed. Asking someone to proof your papers does not constitute cheating. Significant numbers of errors that should have been caught in proofing will cause a paper to be returned, so that proofing can be conducted and a competent paper submitted. Your name should be typed in the upper right corner of the first page (no need for a title page) and may also be shown on subsequent pages. Please use a “12" font in the typeface of your choice, but keep in mind the instructor’s middle-aged eyes. I prefer that you use double-spaced endnotes and bibliographies for your papers. All pages should be numbered. Projects should be stapled together (no folders). BE SURE TO KEEP A COPY OF YOUR PAPERS.
Draft thesis statement (due Sept. 17): about 300 words or 1 page. Identify the title of your proposed topic and briefly discuss its significance. What major historical problem(s) will you address? Why are they important? How do you propose to contribute to the historical literature? Although this is a course requirement, it will not be graded but merely commented upon.
Review of Four Items of the Secondary Literature (due Oct 3 ): 5 pages. Historians divide their resources into two categories: primary and secondary literature. Primary literature consists of letters, diaries, newspapers, wills, deeds, church records, and other materials written during the historical period being researched. Secondary literature consists of the research of later individuals commenting on an earlier time. For example the Virginia Charter and the Mayflower Compact are primary documents; Hall’s Magic Mirror is a secondary source.
This 5-page assignment requires that each student read and review four books or journal articles related to the chosen topic. Students will probably search through about 20-30 books and articles before narrowing their choices to the best four. Don’t despair, some of the others can be used for the annotated bibliography. The review essay will explain how these books relate to the selected topic and how the research designs of the historians who wrote them relate to the student’s anticipated research. Students should not give a blow-by-blow account of the contents of the books chosen, but instead explain what the author intended to prove and how it can be useful to the research design.
List all books and articles reviewed in proper bibliographical format at the top of the first page. The purpose of the review is to evaluate the authors’ major contributions. You should briefly discuss the authors’ backgrounds, their theses, and summarize (very briefly–no more than one short paragraph) the books. You should spend most of your energy discussing the sources and methods used by the authors to address historical problems related to your topic. Examples of general reviews can be found in the major historical journals. Be sure to look at the Journal of American History, American Historical Review, and Reviews in American History.
Mid-term Exam (Oct. 8): This essay exam will be composed of several paragraph-long identifications and at least two essay questions. You will have one hour to compete the exam. It will cover any materials assigned for the class as well as class lectures and discussions.
Thesis Statement: (due Oct. 15): This one to two-page statement should represent a significant revision of your draft statement based on my comments and on the perspective you have gained from preparing the review of the literature. It should be carefully crafted to address the questions identified above at “draft thesis statement.” It should not be merely a retyped document.
Annotated bibliography (due Nov. 5): An annotated bibliography is a list of accurately cited sources each of which is followed by a brief analysis. Each student will submit an annotated bibliography of about 20 items (roughly 15 secondary sources and 5 primary ones) about his/her topic. Citations should conform to standard bibliographical style (see the Chicago Manual of Style) and should be grouped–all secondary books, all secondary articles, all primary documents–and within the groups listed in alphabetical order.
Each citation should be followed by at least a paragraph about the item and its relevance to your topic. Of course this means you must have read or at least skimmed each item. The annotation should be in complete sentences. Your primary references could include items such as: letters and papers of judges, government documents, deeds, wills, business papers, etc. In other words the Papers of Judge Jesse Lynch Holman is one entry, as would be the Posey County Deed Books, even if you were referring to all of Holman’s papers or 100 deed books.
Research Design (due Dec. 5): A research design is an explanation of how to conduct a research project. For this class designs should be six to eight pages long. They should be divided into four parts: introduction, current knowledge, method, anticipated results. The introduction should include the thesis statement and explanation of the importance of the topic. The statement of current knowledge should analyze materials from the annotated bibliography. The design or method will explain how to go about the research (hypothetically), and discuss any potential shortcomings and offer suggestions for overcoming those shortcomings. The research design will conclude with a statement about anticipated results and suggest ways to extend the findings to other projects.
Final exam (date Dec. 11): the final exam will be similar to the mid-term. One hour of the exam will cover the materials presented and discussed since the mid-term. In addition there will be one comprehensive essay question that will cover the entire course period.
Class assignments:
Aug 22 Institutions of the American Legal System
27 English Origins and Colonial Law
Hall, Introduction and Chapter 1
29 NO CLASS
Sept 3 Using county, state and federal records
Newman article
Cases, pp. 3-29
5 English Origins and Colonial Law continued
Hall, pp. 28-35, 39-50
10 How to write a thesis statement TOPIC SELECTION
12 English Origins and Colonial Law continued
Pyncheon Court Records
17 Law and Colonial Society DRAFT THESIS STATEMENT DUE
Hall pp. 35-39
Cases, pp. 29-45
19 Rothman, Discovery of the Asylum
Cases, pp. 45-55
24 NO CLASS
26 NO CLASS
Oct 1 How to write a review of the literature
3 Review for midterm REVIEW OF FOUR ITEMS OF LITERATURE DUE
8 MIDTERM EXAM
10 Revolution and the New Constitutional Order
Hall, Chapter 3 (pp. 49-66)
Cases, pp. 56-68
15 Cases, pp. 68-93 REVISED THESIS STATEMENT DUE
17 The U.S. Constitution
Hall, Chapter 4 (pp. 67-86)
Cases, pp. 93-103
The U.S. Constitution–read it
22 Marbury v. Madison
Cases, pp. 103-113
24 How to write an annotated bibliography
29 Law and Economy
Hall, Chapters 5 and 6 (pp. 87-105)
Cases, pp. 114-139
31 Law and Economy
Hall, pp. 106-128
Cases, pp. 139-186
Nov 5 Crime and Violence ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY DUE
Hall, Chapter 9 (pp. 168-178)
Cases, pp. 284-298
7 Race, Family and Gender Relations
Hall, Chapter 7 (pp. 129-142)
Cases, pp. 243-271 (materials before 1865)
12 Law of Society Continued
14 NO CLASS
17 Civil War and Reconstruction
Cases, 187-226
21 How to write a research design
26 NO CLASS
28 THANKSGIVING
Dec 3 Law and domestic relations
Hall, Chapter 8 (pp. 150-167)
Cases, pp. 264-270
5 Bench, Bar and Legal Reform RESEARCH DESIGN DUE
Cases, pp. 304-336 (materials before 1865)
9 Review for Final Exam
11 3:30-5:30 pm FINAL EXAM