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This analytical study provides a fascinating examination of the circumstances of African-Americans during the first thirty years following the abolition of slavery and insights into the biases of nineteenth-century social science. Its chapters consider population factors, vital statistics, including anthropometry, race amalgamation and social and economic conditions. Hoffman, the statistician of the Prudential Insurance Company of America, based his book on research materials collected in his study of African-Americans. He concludes that, as of 1896, the lives of African-Americans did not demonstrably improve after abolition. As the legal historian Paul Finkelman notes in the introduction: "By employing the beguiling methodology of statistical analysis and other tools of the emerging social sciences, the work justified, among other things, massive racial discrimination in the insurance industry." vii (i-vii new Introduction), x, 329 pp.

The Committee That Drafted the Civil Rights Act, the Reconstruction Act and the Fourteenth Amendment President Andrew Johnson's failure to pursue an aggressive Reconstruction policy incited Congress to supplant his authority by establishing the Joint Committee of Fifteen on Reconstruction, which drafted the Civil Rights Act (1866), the Reconstruction Act (1867) and the Fourteenth Amendment (1868), which contains the important and oft-debated "due process" clause. Due to a series of mishaps the committee's journal was never printed by the government. Brought home by Senator William Pitt Fessenden, one of the committee's members, it remained in his family until it was sold at auction. It was finally acquired by Columbia University, where it remains today. Kendrick offers the complete text of the journal (166 pages) and an extensive history of the committee's work. Published originally in the Columbia University series Studies in History, Economics and Public Law, this work is cited frequently in the literature on Reconstruction. It is a primary reference, for example, in Raoul Berger's landmark study Government by Judiciary: The Transformation of the Fourteenth Amendment (1977). Benjamin B. Kendrick [1884-1946] was a professor of history at the University of North Carolina. He was also the author of The South Looks at its Past (1935) and co-author (with Louis M. Hacker) of The United States Since 1865 (1935). 414 pp.

The essays in this volume discuss the pervasive influence of Roman canon law on the Church of England and the English Ecclesiastical Courts. The essays are: I. William Lyndwood, II. Church, State and Decretals, III. William of Drogheda and the Universal Ordinary, IV. Henry II and the Criminous Clerks, V. "Execrabilis" in the Common Pleas; VI. and The Deacon and the Jewess. Widely considered the father of modern English legal history, Maitland [1850-1906], a prolific scholar, is best known for The History of English Law Before the Time of Edward I (1895), which he co-wrote with Sir Frederick Pollock. He was educated at Eton and Cambridge, studied at Lincoln's Inn and was called to the bar in 1876. After a few years in practice he returned to Cambridge as Reader in English Law in 1884 and Downing Professor of the Laws of England in 1883, a post he held for the rest of his life. His innovative approach to historical sources had a decisive influence on legal scholarship and the study of medieval history in Great Britain and the United States. vii, 184 pp.

Thought to be the earliest code of laws until the translation of the fragmentary Babylonian Code of Ur-Nammu in 1952, the Code of Hammurabi, King of the First Dynasty of Babylon, is the longest, best-organized and best-preserved legal text from the Ancient Near East. Probably issued about 1750 BCE, it has 282 sections. Johns's unabridged translation of the Code includes a useful index that functions as a topical digest of its contents. xii, 88 pp.

Winner, Joseph A. Andrews Award from the American Association of Law Libraries, 1986. Provides a detailed discussion and analysis of the pamphlet materials on the law of slavery published in the United States and Great Britain.

George Mason [1725-1792] is remembered as the father of the Bill of Rights and for his unwillingness to sign the U.S. Constitution. John R. Vile examines Mason's political philosophy and writings that have influenced American political thought. Chief of these is the Virginia Declaration of Rights which served as a basis for the United States Bill of Rights. xxi, 271 pp.

This provocative essay considers the historical background, meaning and effect of the Ninth Amendment, which states "the enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people." Patterson feels the amendment was "forgotten" because no real purpose has been found for it. He argues that the amendment would become valuable if it was construed to incorporate the doctrine of natural law, which he ranks above constitutional rights. Moreover, this doctrine should serve to restrict federal and state power.

Wines's book was well-received by contemporary readers; Benjamin Butler, Levi Woodbury and William Kent were among its admirers. It begins with the assumption that "next to the birth and mission of Jesus Christ, the existence and institutions of the Hebrew people are the most important event in universal history" (Preface, iii). Its exploration of the Hebraic experience finds a senate, commons, and Chief Magistrate. The divine origin of these institutions is emphasized, along with their relation to the social and legal order. xvi, 640 pp.

Vinogradoff argues that the Norman-era villain was the direct descendent of the Anglo-Saxon freeman, so the typical Anglo-Saxon settlement was a free community rather than a manor. An impressive work of original scholarship and synthesis, it "shed a wholly new light on the social and legal aspects of the institution of villainage" (William Holdsworth, The Historians of English Law 86). xii, 464 pp.

Written when the author was a diplomat posted in Berlin, this distinguished treatise went through several American and English editions, and several more in French, Italian, Spanish and Chinese. A standard work during the nineteenth century, an edition was published in England as late as 1936. xiv, 375 pp.

An international law context for Madison's notes on the debates of the Federal Convention of 1787. Since the Federal Convention of 1787 was "in fact as well as in form an international conference," Scott examines James Madison's notes from the perspective of international law. Founding father, statesman and political theorist, James Madison [1751-1836] was the primary author of the United States Constitution. While a member of the First Congress, he drafted the Bill of Rights and helped to organize the new Federal government. Along with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, he was one of the authors of The Federalist. He established the Democratic-Republican Party with Thomas Jefferson. Elected in 1809, Madison served two terms as president. He was, without question, one of the most influential national leaders in the early years of the United States. xviii, 149pp.

Within a narrative history of the early American Bar Association, Matzko illustrates how the organization endeavored to create a traditional professional gatekeeping organization by gaining control of legal education, entrance examinations, and ethical codes. The early ABA supported reformist values of political and social change if such change could be overseen by courts. It was not until the second decade of the twentieth century that it began its transformation into a more conservative group. xxxvi, 333 pp.