This perceptive and deeply researched monograph adds a significant dimension to the corpus of knowledge about the transformation of American society which began with the American Revolutionary Era, as well as about the transformation of American law.
   --Richard B. Morris, American Journal of Legal History

This synthesis of the legal history of Massachusetts in the era of the American Revolution is one of those exceptional first books that with the passage of time may become a classic of historical literature.
   --Herbert A. Johnson, Columbia Law Review

This synthesis of the legal history of Massachusetts in the era of the American Revolution is one of those exceptional first books that with the passage of time may become a classic of historical literature.
   --Herbert A. Johnson, Columbia Law Review

William E. Nelson is Professor of Law and History, New York University.

Read More by William E. Nelson:

• The Fourteenth Amendment: From Political Principle to Judicial Doctrine
• The Roots of American Bureaucracy, 1830-1900