[Nelson's] work is broad and his arguments judicious. He offers nothing less than a full interpretation of American political development over seventy years.
   --M. D. Kaplanoff, Times Higher Education Supplement

Nelson's thesis is that the public life of this country has been dominated by the clash between two ideals: majority self-rule and the protection of individual and minority rights...He has given us a stimulating and provocative interpretation of the nineteenth-century American state.
   --Morton Keller, American Historical Review

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

Read More by William E. Nelson:

• Americanization of the Common Law: The Impact of Legal Change on Massachusetts Society, 1760-1830
• The Fourteenth Amendment: From Political Principle to Judicial Doctrine