Americanization of the Common Law: The Impact of Legal Change on Massachusetts Society, 1760-1830

Author: William E. Nelson
Publisher: Harvard University Press, 1975
Condition: Softcover, minor wear to cover, interior clean
Americanization of the Common Law remains one of the standard works on the transformation of law in America from the late colonial period to the end of the early republic. In a straightforward manner, William E. Nelson analyzes the profound ideological movement that grew out of the American Revolution and caused substantial structural change in the legal and social order of Massachusetts and, by extension, in the nation at large. The Revolution, Nelson argues, transformed a hierarchical and communitarian legal and social order into an egalitarian and individualistic one.