Spring 2008
Constitutional History of the
Citizenship
CBD Building Room 238
Professor: Elizabeth Dale
Office
hours: Tuesday: 7th period
Thursday: 4th-5th periods
and by appointment
The seminar will meet once a week,
on Wed, for three hours starting at 3PM (8-10 periods, using the main campus
schedule).
Required materials:
James Kettner, The Development of American Citizenship, 1608-1870 (University of
N. Carolina Press; new edition 1984)
Mark S. Weiner, Americans without
Law: The Racial Boundaries of Citizenship (
Also required: articles listed in
syllabus and cases/statutes that are linked to below. Articles are not linked
to (for reasons of copyright), these articles are all accessible online through
the UF library system. (Note: all materials listed below are required unless
they appear under the heading “additional readings.” On additional
readings, see below.)
Assignment:
Everyone registered in the course
for credit hours is required to write one seminar paper (worth 75% of your grade)
and to participate in class (worth 25% of your grade). Participation depends on
more than coming to class, you must participate in discussion of the materials
to earn a passing grade for participation (your participation should also
reveal that you have read the materials).
Focus of the seminar:
We are going to be looking at US
Constitutional History from roughly the founding era (actually a bit before)
through the 20th century. To make that manageable, we're going to look at
citizenship in particular.
We are going to be reading primary
sources (cases, statutes, the constitution, and some other primary documents)
and some secondary sources. The primary source materials will let us discuss
who has the power to define citizenship, the secondary materials will let us
consider the different approaches of legal history (theory and methods, so to
speak). My expectation is that we will generally read 1-3 article length things
a week (but see pt 3, below), though I am going to assign two books. We will start
the semester with one and finish the semester with the other. I've listed the
books and provided information about them below, I'll need you to actually buy
the books yourselves.
The course is arranged in a rough
chronological order, but at times (particularly in the second half of the
semester) we will be looking at themes that develop over time. Each week I have
identified required readings (typically a key decision and 1-2 related
articles). I have also identified additional readings. Class discussion depends
on everyone reading the required readings carefully. The additional readings
are intended as a prompt for students looking for paper topics, they are not
intended to be exclusive (that is, I expect you to find other materials on your
own).
My hope is that throughout the
semester we will spend some time discussing papers you all have written. For
those of you working on dissertation chapters or MA theses, this will be a
chance to present drafts of them, but we can also fit in presentations on seminar
papers.
Week 1: Jan. 9: Introduction to the course
Read the materials on citizenship
here: http://www.nelrc.org/cpcc/necpindex.htm
Week 2: Jan 16: The concept of citizenship in Early
America
Kettner, The Development of American Citizenship
Additional readings:
Nancy Isenberg, Sex and Citizenship in Antebellum
Week 3: Jan 23: Defining citizenship
in Early America:
Calvin’s Case
(1608) (skim)
Pennsylvania
Constitution (1776) (skim)
Pennsylvania
Constitution (1838) (skim)
Martin v. Masssachusetts
(1805)
Linda Kerber, The Paradox of Women’s Citizenship in the Early Republic, American Historical Review, vol, 97
(1992): 349
Additional readings:
The Avalon Project,
especially 18th & 19th century documents (
Historic
Pennsylvania Constitutions,
Week 4: Jan 30: Native Americans,
sovereignty and citizenship in Early America
Cherokee
Nation v. Georgia (1831)
Worcester v. Georgia
(1832)
Stephen G. Bragaw, Thomas Jefferson and the American Indian
Nations: Native American Sovereignty and the Marshall Court Journal of Supreme Court History vol.
31 (2006): 155
Additional readings:
Indian Citizenship Act of 1924
Kevin Bruyneel, Challenging American Boundaries: Indigenous People and the “Gift” of
Week 5: Feb 6: African Americans, rights and citizenship in the
Antebellum Era
Roberts
v. City of Boston (1850)
Pierson,
Michael, “Slavery Cannot be Covered Up with Broadcloth or a Bandanna,” Journal of the Early Republic 25 (2005):
383-415 (1850s)
David
Gellman, Race, the Public Sphere, and
Abolition in Late Eighteenth-Century New York Journal of the Early Republic vol, 20 (2000): 607
Hilary
J. Moss, The Tarring and Feathering of
Thomas Paul Smith: Common Schools, Revolutionary Memory and the Crisis of Black
Citizenship in Antebellum
Additional readings:
Scott
v.
Week 6: Feb 13: Citizenship and
rights after the Civil War, Part I
Elk v. Wilkins (1884)
James W. Fox, Jr., Exploring the History, Evolution, and Future
of the Fourteenth Amendment: Democratic Citizenship and Congressional
Reconstruction, 13
David R. Quigley, The Proud Name of “Citizen” Has Sunk American Nineteenth Century History (
Additional readings:
Robert J. Kaczorowski, To Begin the Nation Anew: Congress,
Citizenship and Civil Rights After the Civil War American Historical Review vol. 92 (1987): 45
Week 7: Feb 20: Citizenship and
rights after the Civil War, Part II
Plessy v. Ferguson
(1896)
United States v. Wong
Kim Ark (1898)
Karin Zipg, Reconstructing the Free Woman: African American Women, Apprenticeship
and Custody Rights During Reconstruction
Journal of Women’s History
12 (2000): 8
Additional
Mary Frances Berry, Military Necessity and Civil Rights Policy:
Black Citizenship and the Constitution, 1861-1868 (1977)
Laura Edwards, Status without Rights: African Americans and the Tangled History of Law
and Governance in the Nineteenth-Century US South American Historical Review vol. 112 (2007): 365
Week 8: Feb 27: Workers and Citizenship
Holden v. Hardy
(1898)
Lochner v. New York, 198
Muller v. Oregon (1908)
James R. Barrett and David Roediger,
Inbetween Peoples: Race, Nationality and
the “New Immigrant” Working Class Journal of American Ethnic History 16
(1997): 3.
Additional readings:
Lizabeth Cohen, Making a New Deal: Industrial Workers in
Gerald Berk, “Corporate Liberalism
Reconsidered: A Review Essay,” Journal of
Policy Studies 3 (1991): 84
Barbara Welke, Recasting American
William Wiecek, The Lost World of Classical Liberal Thought, 1886-1937
Week 9: March 5: Women as citizens?
Minor
v. Happersett (1874)
Adam Winkler, A Revolution Too Soon: Woman Suffragists and the “Living Constitution,”
76 NYU L. Rev. 1456 (2001).
Reva B. Siegel, She the People: The Nineteenth Amendment, Sex Equality, Federalism and
the Family 115 Harv. L. Rev. 947
(2002).
Additional readings:
Linda Kerber, No Constitutional Right to be Ladies? (1998)
Gretchen Ritter, Jury Service and Women’s Citizenship Before
and After the Nineteenth Amendment Law
and History Review 20 (2002): 479
Week 10: Spring Break
Week 11: March 19: Rights and
citizenship
Palko v. Connecticut
(1937)
Kenneth W. Mack, “Rethinking Civil
Rights Lawyering and Politics in the Era Before Brown,” Yale L. J. 115 (2005): 256
Additional readings:
United States v. Carolene Products,
304 US 144 (1938)
Murdock v.
Duncan v.
Griswold v.
Risa Goluboff, The Lost Promise of Civil Rights (2007)
Week 12: March 26: Citizenship,
education and rights
Minersville School
District v. Gobitis (1940)
Brown v. Board of Education
(1954)
Jack Balkin, Plessy, Brown and Grutter: A Play in Three Acts 26 Cardozo Law Review 1689 (2005).
Additional readings:
Plyler v. Doe,
457
Week 13: April 2: Citizenship and
war
Ex Parte Merryman (1861)
Abrams v. United States
(1919)
Korematsu v. United States (1944)
Michael Traynor, Citizenship in a Time of Repression 35 Stetson Law Review 775 (2006)
Additional readings:
Suzanne, Mettler, The Creation of the G.I. Bill of Rights of
1944: Melding Social and Participatory Citizenship Ideals Journal of Policy History vol. 17
(2005): 345
Lucy E. Salyer, Baptism by Fire: Race, Military Service and
Christopher Capozzola, The Only Badge Needed is Your Patriotic
Fervor: Vigilance, Coercion and the Law in World War I
Week 14: April 9: Identity and
citizenship, Part II
Linda Kerber, The Meaning of Citizenship, Journal
of American History vol. 84 (1997): 833
Kimberle Crenshaw, Race, Reform and Retrenchment Harvard Law Review vol. 101 (1988):
1331.
Week 15: April 16: Last class
Weiner, Americans without Law
Week 16: papers due