Scholars from leading U.S. law schools gathered May 3 for a daylong conference to discuss and provide feedback on the forthcoming book, A New Democracy: Law and the Creation of the Modern State, by William Novak, a University of Michigan law professor and legal historian. The book will be published by Harvard University Press.
Novak’s book traces the rise of regulation in America from the end of the Civil War to the Great Depression and shatters the myth that modern regulation in the United States started with Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal in the 1930s.
Novak argues that, during this period, the nation underwent a “Second American Revolution,” in which progressive reformers worked to expand the right to vote, limit the role of money in politics, fund public education, promote public health, and regulate the economy. A desire to make American politics and culture more democratic guided these efforts and set the stage for the better known reforms of the New Deal.
“Professor Novak’s research reveals that many of the basic regulatory issues that we struggle with today — money in politics, immigration, educational standards — have a long history that dates to the 19th century,” said Timothy Lytton, Distinguished University Professor and Professor of Law, who organized the event at Georgia State Law. “Novak’s careful historical study of these issues can help us better understand our own regulatory policy challenges today.”
The conference brought together scholars in the field to discuss the book’s thesis and to offer feedback at a stage when changes to the manuscript still can be made. Participants, a mix of historians, political scientists, and administrative law scholars, came from Harvard University, Yale University , Columbia University, Georgetown University, University of Berkeley, Duke University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Texas, University of Georgia and Georgia State University.
"Reviewing Professor Novak's manuscript as a prelude to publication was a premier opportunity to watch scholarship in process,” said Paul Lombardo, Bobby Lee Cook Professor of Law. “It let Georgia State faculty members at the law school and the history department participate in interdisciplinarity at the highest level, along with some of the finest scholars in the country."
“With workshops such as this, including leading law scholars and legal historians from around the country, Georgia State Law is building on its growing national reputation as a place for serious scholarly encounters.” – Timothy Lytton, Distinguished University Professor and Professor of Law
The event was hosted by the Center for Law, Health & Society and co-sponsored by Georgia State Law and the University of Michigan Law School.