American Legal History Research
by Fred Dingledy
Updated December 2023
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Some resources on this page are subscription databases that require a W&M ID and password for off-campus access. Be sure to access these resources using a link from the law library's or Swem Library's website. Lexis and Westlaw require individual IDs and passwords for both off-campus and on-campus access. |
Books
Library Catalog
To search for books, journals, and audiovisual materials held by William & Mary libraries, use the online catalog.
Search Tips:
Subject Queries--
Constitutional History--United States
Courts--United States--History
Federal Government--United States--History
Law--United States--History
Law and Legislation--United States--History
Law and Legislation--United States--States--History
Practice of Law--United States--History
Library of Congress Call Numbers for American Legal History issues: KF351-KF373, KF4502, KF4510, KF4541. Browse the shelves under these call numbers to locate relevant treatises.
To search for materials from other libraries, use the Worldcat database.
Selected Books
Dinan, John J. State Constitutional Politics: Governing by Amendment in the American States. Available as ebook.
KF4555 .A25 D56 2018
Friedman, Lawrence M. American Law in the 20th Century. Available as ebook.
KF385 A4F7 2002
Friedman, Lawrence M. A history of American law. 4th ed. Available as ebook.
KF352 .F7 2019
Fruchtman, Jack. American Constitutional History: A Brief Introduction. 2d ed.
KF4541 .F78 2022
Grossberg, Michael, ed. The Cambridge History of Law in America.
KF352 .C36 2007 (3 vols.)
Hadden, Sally E., and Alfred L. Brophy. A Companion to American Legal History. Available as ebook.
KF352 .C66 2013
Hall, Kermit. The Magic Mirror: Law in American history. 2nd ed.
KF352 .H35 2009
Klarman, Michael J. The Framers' Coup: The Making of the United States Constitution. Available as ebook.
KF4541 .K53 2016
Lynch, David (Judge). The Role of Circuit Courts in the Formation of United States Law in the Early Republic : Following Supreme Court Justices Washington, Livingston, Story, and Thompson.
KF8750 .L96 2018
John B. Nann & Morris L. Cohen. The Yale Law School Guide to Research in American Legal History. Available as ebook.
KF240 .N36 2018
William E. Nelson. E Pluribus Unum : How the Common Law helped Unify and Liberate Colonial America, 1607-1776. Available as ebook.
KF361 .N46 2019
Orren, Karen & John W. Compton, eds. The Cambridge Companion to the United States Constitution.
KF4550 .C36 2018
The Oxford encyclopedia of American political and legal history.
Reference JK9 .O94 2012
Sheppard, Steve, ed. The History of Legal Education in the United States: Commentaries and Primary Sources. 2 vols.
KF273 H535 1999
Tsai, Robert L. America's Forgotten Constitutions.
KF4541 .T73 2014
Urofsky, Melvin I. and Paul Finkelman, eds. Documents of American constitutional and legal history. 3rd ed.
KF4502 .D635 2008
Urofsky, Melvin I. A march of liberty : a constitutional history of the United States. 3rd ed.
KF4541 .U76 2011
White, G. Edward. American Legal History: A Very Short Introduction.
KF352 .W478 2014
White, G. Edward. Law in American history. Volume 2 and Volume 3 available as ebooks.
KF352 .W48 2012
Journal Articles
Indexes to Journal Articles
Subject Queries--
Constitutional History
Legal History
United States -- History
Indexes articles from academic law reviews and bar journals.
Online coverage: 1908-present.
Full Text Articles
American Journal of Legal History (via Hein Online: 1957-2016)
American Journal of Legal History (via Oxford Univ. Press Journals: 1996-present)
Law and History Review (via Hein Online - most recent three years indexed-only)
Westlaw
American Journal of Legal History (AMJLH) (1994-present)
Law & History Review (LHISTR) (1996-present)
W&M Databases
Swem Library Databases >> History
List of databases designed for historical research available to William & Mary students and faculty.
World Wide Web Resources
Govinfo.gov
The Government Publishing Office's (GPO) official web portal for access to federal government publications. Among other things, it provides access to historical versions of the Congressional Record and the Federal Register. Its collection is not complete yet, but GPO is continuing to work on filling historical gaps.
J. Willard Hurst Collection
Hosted by the University of Wisconsin Law Library, this collection contains the notes, papers, and publications of J. Willard Hurst, generally considered the father of modern American Legal History. Many of the items have been digitized and are available on this website.
Legal History Blog
Blog of Prof. Mary L. Dudziak, Professor of Law, History, and Political Science at U. of Southern California. Prof. Dudziak's blog covers new developments and publications in the field of legal history.
Library of Congress Digital Collections
Searchable database of digitized documents and pictures plus descriptions of other items in the Library of Congress's collection. Limit to the subject "Government, Law & Politics" under "Refine Your Results" on the left-hand side of the page.
The National Archives
Access documents published online by the Archives, and use the site's research tools to find print resources located at Archive facilities. This website also has links to the websites of Presidential Libraries, another useful resource for historical research.
Women's Legal History
This site is an online supplement to the book "Woman Lawyer: The Trials of Clara Foltz", but it also contains a database of biographical information on groundbreaking female attorneys.
Associations
American Association of Law Libraries Legal History & Rare Books Special Interest Section
A special interest group within the national law librarians' association that focuses on legal history. Their newsletter has discussions of important books in legal history and reviews of recently-published books that discuss legal history.
American Society for Legal History
Website of the American Society for Legal History. Includes information on joining the society, meetings, and information on Society publications and discussion lists.
Society created to collect and preserve the history of the U.S. Supreme Court. Their website has information on how to join the society, as well as articles, short movies and quizzes about the Court's history.