Seminar in United States History
Fall 2013
This seminar explores the role of lawyers in the constitutional “refounding” of the United States during the Age of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1933-1945.
Readings will include Eric Rauchway, The Great Depression and the New Deal: A Very Short Introduction; Willliam Leuchtenburg, Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal, 1932-1940; Elizabeth Borgwardt, A New Deal for the World: America’s Vision for Human Rights during the Second World War.
Each student will write a legislative history of a major statute (1000 words), a biographical sketch of an important New Deal lawyer (1500 words), and a thirty-page research paper on a topic chosen in consultation with the instructor.
Grades for the course will be awarded for class participation (20%), for the first two short(er) writing assignments (20%), for the rough draft of the research paper (20%), and for the final paper (40%).
