The people's welfare : law and regulation in nineteenth-century America / William J. Novak.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Novak, William J., 1961-

Series:

Studies in legal history

Studies in legal history The people's welfare

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Law--United States--History.

Law.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 396 p. ) ill. ;

Place of Publication:

Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, c1996.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

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.

Contents:

Governance, police, and American liberal mythology

The common law vision of a well-regulated society

Public safety : fire and the relative right of property

Public economy : the well-ordered market

Public ways : the legal construction of public space

Public morality : disorderly houses and demon rum

Public health : quarantine, noxious trades, and medical police

The invention of American constitutional law.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (p. 345-373) and index.

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

ISBN:

9798890866523

9780807863657

0807863653