The People's Welfare: Law and Regulation in Nineteenth-Century America

by William J. Novak

Overview

Much of today's political rhetoric decries the welfare state and our maze of government regulations. Critics hark back to a time before the state intervened so directly in citizens' lives. In The People's Welfare, William Novak refutes this vision of a stateless past by documenting America's long history of government regulation in the areas of public safety, political economy, public property, morality, and public health. Challenging the myth of American individualism, Novak recovers a distinctive nineteenth-century commitment to shared obligations and public duties in a well-regulated society. Novak explores the by-laws, ordinances, statutes, and common law restrictions that regulated almost every aspect of America's society and economy, including fire regulations, inspection and licensing rules, fair marketplace laws, the moral policing of prostitution and drunkenness, and health and sanitary codes. Based on a reading of more than one thousand court cases in addition to the leading legal and political texts of the nineteenth century, The People's Welfare demonstrates the deep roots of regulation in America and offers a startling reinterpretation of the history of American governance.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807863657
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	11/09/2000
Series:	Studies in Legal History
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	408
Lexile:	1690L (what's this?)
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

William J. Novak is associate professor of history at the University of Chicago.

Table of Contents

Contents

Preface Introduction: Governance, Police, and American Liberal Mythology Chapter 1. The Common Law Vision of a Well-Regulated Society Chapter 2. Public Safety: Fire and the Relative Right of Property Chapter 3. Public Economy: The Well-Ordered Market Chapter 4. Public Ways: The Legal Construction of Public Space Chapter 5. Public Morality: Disorderly Houses and Demon Rum Chapter 6. Public Health: Quarantine, Noxious Trades, and Medical Police Conclusion: The Invention of American Constitutional Law Notes Select Bibliography Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Sophisticated and provocative, well-written, well-argued, and exhaustively researched . . . an important, useful, and controversial attempt to reorient our understanding of nineteenth-century American legal history.” — Law and Legal History

“Offers a vigorous and effective challenge to two related bodies of literature: one that conceives of the law in the early Republic as a mere instrument in the hands of entrepreneur-favoring jurists and legislators, and another that sees government more generally yielding its residual colonial and medieval regulatory functions to the dictates of the market economy.” — American Historical Review

“Well written and thoroughly researched. . . . This is a comprehensive and well documented book, showing the author’s competence in a number of disciplines, including economics, social history, and law.” — Business History Review

“An extraordinarily important historical work on American government regulation in the 19th century. . . . [A] landmark treatise.” — Library Journal

“[A] provocative, prodigiously researched, and beautifully written book.” — Reviews in American History

“[An] interesting and at times provocative book.” — Journal of Economic History

“An enormously important book. . . . The People’s Welfare is an example of the best of historical writing.” — William and Mary Quarterly

“The People’s Welfare is a powerful exercise in demystification. It demonstrates conclusively that, contrary to the regnant laissez-faire mythology, government has been deeply and constructively involved in the American economy since the founding of the republic.” — Arthur Schlesinger Jr.

“There is no question in historical research more compelling for gaining perspective on the central issues of our own day than that of how 'the people’s welfare' and the 'common good' have been defined and pursued in America, in what relationship to rule of law, and with what results. Novak has enriched this perspective with an ambitious research design, presented with admirable clarity and verve.” — Yale Law Journal

“In a brilliant study of American law that challenges both the liberal and the republican readings of American constitutional and economic development, William Novak demonstrates that beneath the thin layer of federal law, the states' lower courts drew on a wide variety of resources to elaborate and enforce the doctrine salus populi, the people’s welfare.” — James T. Kloppenberg in The Virtues of Liberalism

Editorial Reviews

This is a comprehensive and well documented book, showing the author 's competence in a number of disciplines.

"Business History Review"

[A] provocative, prodigiously researched, and beautifully written book.

"Reviews in American History"

[A]n ambitious research design, presented with admirable clarity and verve.

"Yale Law Journal"

Offers a vigorous and effective challenge to two related bodies of literature [on legal regulation].

"American Historical Review"

Sophisticated and provocative, well-written, well-argued, and exhaustively researched.

"Law and Legal History"

ÝA¨ provocative, prodigiously researched, and beautifully written book.

"Reviews in American History"

ÝA¨n ambitious research design, presented with admirable clarity and verve.

"Yale Law Journal"

"[A] provocative, prodigiously researched, and beautifully written book.

"Reviews in American History""

"[A]n ambitious research design, presented with admirable clarity and verve.

"Yale Law Journal""

"Sophisticated and provocative, well-written, well-argued, and exhaustively researched.

"Law and Legal History""

"This is a comprehensive and well documented book, showing the authorUs competence in a number of disciplines.

"Business History Review""

From the Publisher