Students As Gravediggers: A Critical Unpacking of ‘Chandra’s Death’ in the Classroom
“What the bourgeoisie therefore produces, above all, are its own grave diggers. Its fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable.” Karl Marx, and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto (1848)[1] Chandra’s Death is a powerful text, that documents the intersections of colonial power, with patriarchal and caste relations.[2] In the text, Ranajit Guha...
David Tanenhaus–Beyond the Scope: Reflections on a Forgotten Speech
This short essay is about the problem of what to do with the accidental discovery of a primary source, a research gem, that is beyond the scope of one’s current projects. It is also a reflection about the legal history community and the subjective necessity for writing. Part I. The Journey to Discovery Thanks to...
FORUM: Christine Desan’s Making Money
Since it appeared in 2014, Christine Desan's book, Making Money: Coin, Currency, and the Coming of Capitalism (Oxford University Press, 2014) has captured the attention of legal and economic historians interested in some of the most foundational questions of the legal history of money. Desan argues that the way governments--and the people behind them--design money...
An Interview with Sarah Balakrishnan
[Ed. Note. This fall, Law and History Review's Editorial Assistant, Elinor Aspegren, had the opportunity to discuss Professor Sarah Balakrishnan's fascinating work. Most historians would bristle at being described as being a historian and writer of fiction, but Professor Balakrishnan in fact has managed to pursue careers as both a scholar as well as an...
[Ed. Note: This past November, Dr. Jessica Marglin took the time to discuss her new book. The Shamama Case: Contesting Citizenship Across the Modern Mediterranean (Princeton University Press, 2022) with The Docket. Here is our conversation.] The Docket [TD]: How did you get interested in the Shamama lawsuit and how long have you been working...
Christopher Tomlins–David Lieberman: A Remembrance
I cannot now remember when I first met David. Probably, it was at a conference – an ASLH annual meeting, perhaps sometime in the 1990s. I have a strong memory of him at a session of the Law & Society Association meeting in Las Vegas (2005), laughing reproachfully at something deprecatory I had said about...
Dr. Felicity Turner's book, Proving Pregnancy: Gender, Law, and Medical Knowledge in Nineteenth-Century America was published by The University of North Carolina Press in the fall of 2022. Dr. Turner was kind enough to discuss her new book with The Docket. Here is our conversation. The Docket [TD]: Readers will take a look at your...