Criminal Justice in the United States, 1789-1939

Elizabeth Dale currently teaches history and law at the University of Florida. Her research focuses on expressions of popular sovereignty, specifically popular efforts to determine and enforce notions of right and wrong, in constitutional orders. She has written several books including the forthcoming Chicago's Trunk Murder: Law and Justice at the Turn of the Century. Her articles have been published in the Law and History Review, the American Historical Review and the Northern Illinois Law Review.

“This is a highly comprehensive, thoughtful, and insightful overview of the history of American criminal justice over the course of the long nineteenth century. Remarkably sensitive to larger trends and local nuance in the development of American criminal justice, Elizabeth Dale’s masterful book should be read by all interested in the history of American law.” – Michael J. Pfeifer, author of The Roots of Rough Justice: Origins of American Lynching

• 1. Criminal justice and the nation, 1789–1860; 2. Law and justice in the states, 1789–1839; 3. Law vs justice in the states, 1840–65; 4. States and nation, 1860–1900; 5. Criminal justice, 1900–35; 6. Rights and the turn to law, 1937–9.