Shifting the blame : literature, law, and the theory of accidents in nineteenth-century America / Nan Goodman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Goodman, Nan, 1957- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Accident law--United States--History--19th century.

Accident law.

Law and literature--History--19th century.

Law and literature.

American literature--19th century--History and criticism.

American literature.

Legal stories, American--History and criticism.

Legal stories, American.

Responsibility in literature.

Negligence in literature.

Blame in literature.

Accidents in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (216 pages) : illustrations

Place of Publication:

Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, [1998]

Summary:

Drawing on legal cases, legal debates, and fiction including works by James Fenimore Cooper, Mark Twain, Stephen Crane, and Charles Chesnutt, Nan Goodman investigates changing notions of responsibility and agency in nineteenth-century America. By looking at accidents and accident law in the industrializing society, Goodman shows how courts moved away from the doctrine of strict liability to a new notion of liability that emphasized fault and negligence. Shifting the Blame reveals the pervasive impact of this radically new theory of responsibility in understandings of industrial hazards, in manufacturing dangers, and in the stories that were told and retold about accidents.

Contents:

A clear showing: The problem of fault in James Fenimore Cooper's The Pioneers

Negligence before the mast: ship collisions and the nautical literature of the mid-nineteenth century

"Nobody to blame": Steamboat accidents and responsibility in Twain

The law of the good samaritan: Cross-racial rescue in Stephen Crane and Charles Chesnutt

Stop, Look, and Listen: the signs and signals of the railroad accident.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [171]-191) and index.

ISBN:

9780691227450

0691227454

OCLC:

947839021