| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 92.2

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 92.2 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

The Creation of American Common Law, 1850–1880: Technology, Politics, and the Construction of Citizenship. By Howard Schweber. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004. viii, 296 pp. $60.00, ISBN 0-521-82462-1.)

Howard Schweber's book is a provocative comparison of northern and southern legal culture in the nineteenth century and how railroads affected legal change in both sections. Schweber's argument proceeds from a close examination of appellate court decisions predominantly in Virginia and Illinois. The main thrust of his argument is that judges so embraced railroad progress and growth in Illinois and other northern states in the 1850s that they transformed common law to suit the railroad economy. In contrast, Virginia's judges remained wedded to traditional categories of the common law and were reluctant to adopt changes to enable railroad-driven growth. The old common law, according to Schweber, centered its pleading and decisions on property rights and the relative status of citizens. What mattered in the old common law was one's position in a specific case vis-àvis other private rights holders.

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