Cross-Examinations of Law and Literature

Weaving together legal and literary history, Cross-examinations of law and literature focuses on one aspect of antebellum American culture: the unique relationship between law and literature. Thomas reads legal history through the lens of individual works of literature (Cooper's The Pioneers, Hawthorne's The House of Seven Gables, Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, and selected works by Melville), to show how the period's legal reasoning achieves much of its persuasive power. In his view, legal discourse relied on and helped to shape the narratives that many Americans constructed about the conflicts between the law of the heart and that of the head, between the private and public spheres, and between the individual and society (cover).