The Legal History Podcast

EPISODE 7: Daniel Sharfstein

In this episode, Siobhan interviews Daniel J. Sharfstein, professor of law and history and co-director of the George Barrett Social Justice Program at Vanderbilt University, about his book Thunder in the Mountains: Chief Joseph, Oliver Otis Howard and the Nez Perce War. Sharfstein’s scholarship focuses on the legal history of race in the United States. In this discussion, he explores ideas of law, society, and politics through his compelling narrative about the Nez Perce War.

EPISODE 6: Eric Foner

In this episode, Siobhan discusses law in the Reconstruction era with Eric Foner, the Dewitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University. Foner, the author of seminal work Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, has dedicated much of the last year to public outreach about Reconstruction to mark its 150th anniversary.

EPISODE 5: William Domnarski

In this episode, Siobhan interviews attorney and author William Domnarski about his new biography of Richard Posner, an influential judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and great force behind the law and economics movement. Domnarski candidly sets forth the factors which underlie an individual who is arguably the most influential legal mind of the past half-century. With the full cooperation of his subject, Domnarski had access to Posner’s letters and to many individuals who may have been unwilling to speak without the approval of Posner himself.  Domnarski explores important themes within law and the judiciary while also keeping the reader invested in a very human story.

EPISODE 4: Al Brophy

In this episode, Siobhan meets with University, Court and Slave: Pro-Slavery Thought in Southern Colleges and Courts and the Coming of Civil War author Alfred L. Brophy, the Judge John J. Parker Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina School of Law. In his new book, Brophy brings to life the dynamic interplay between law and culture by mapping out the crisscrossing intellectual paths between southern courts and universities in the mid-nineteenth century. Brophy discusses the pro-slavery polemics that were delivered by southern lawyers, judges, and politicians to university students. At the same time, he shows  how pro-slavery ideas fomented in the academy heavily influenced judicial reasoning in southern courtrooms and exposes some of the horrors endured by enslaved people living on university campuses.

EPISODE 3: Sara L. Crosby

In this episode, Siobhan talks with Associate Professor of English at The Ohio State University at Marion, Sara L. Crosby, about her new book, Poisonous Muse: The Female Poisoner and the Framing of Popular Authorship in Jacksonian America. Crosby discusses how the trope of the female poisoner permeated popular literature in the mid-nineteenth century. In her analysis of the 1840 murder trial of Hannah Kinney, we see how the partisan press used the accused as a vessel through which to fight-out central political battles of the day. We then see how jury decisions may serve as a metric for determining which metaphors and cultural frames are prevailing at a point in time. Following a popular metaphor enables Crosby to track the cultural tides influencing law and politics in Jacksonian America.

EPISODE 2: Samantha Barbas

In this podcast, Siobhan interviews Samantha Barbas, Professor of Law at University of Buffalo School of Law, about her new book Laws of Image: Privacy and Publicity in America, which provides a history of Americans’ use of law to manage their public image. Barbas approaches this endeavor from the perspective of a legal and cultural historian, tracking the correlation between a growing American image consciousness and the rise of laws, such as the tort of invasion of privacy and damages for emotional distress, which enabled individuals to control and defend their public persona.

EPISODE 1: Mary Ziegler

In this podcast, Siobhan talks with Mary Ziegler, Stearns Weaver Miller Professor of Law at Florida State University College of Law, about her book, After Roe: The Lost History of the Abortion Debate. Ziegler’s work uses the landmark American abortion rights case, Roe vs. Wade to explore litigation as a vessel for social change and the role the court plays in democracy. In addition to traditional archival research, Ziegler recorded over one hundred oral histories of people in the pro-life and pro-choice camps, allowing her to move beyond caricatures and delve more precisely into the catalysts for these individuals' points of view.