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The Promises of Liberty – The History and Contemporary Relevance of the Thirteenth Amendment
Author(s): Alexander Tsesis (Author)
- Publisher: Columbia University Press
- Publication Date: 5 Nov. 2010
- Language: English
- Print length: 376 pages
- ISBN-10: 0231141440
- ISBN-13: 9780231141444
Book Description
In these original essays, America’s leading historians and legal scholars reassess the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment and its relevance to issues of liberty, justice, and equality. The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery in the United States, reasserting the radical, egalitarian dimensions of the Constitution. It also laid the foundations for future civil rights and social justice legislation. Yet subsequent reinterpretation and misappropriation have curbed more substantive change. With constitutional jurisprudence undergoing a revival, The Promises of Liberty provides a full portrait of the Thirteenth Amendment and its potential for ensuring liberty. The collection begins with Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David Brion Davis, who discusses the failure of the Thirteenth Amendment to achieve its framers’ objectives. The next piece, by Alexander Tsesis, provides a detailed account of the Amendment’s revolutionary character. James M. McPherson, another Pulitzer recipient, recounts the influence of abolitionists on the ratification process, and Paul Finkelman focuses on who freed the slaves and President Lincoln’s commitment to ending slavery. Michael Vorenberg revisits the nineteenth century’s understanding of freedom and citizenship and the Amendment’s surprisingly small role in the Reconstruction and post-Reconstruction periods. William M. Wiecek shows how the Supreme Court’s narrow interpretation once rendered the guarantee of freedom nearly illusory, and the collection’s third Pulitzer Prize winner, David M. Oshinsky, explains how peonage undermined the prohibition against compulsory service. Subsequent essays relate the Thirteenth Amendment to congressional authority, hate crimes legislation, the labor movement, and immigrant rights. These chapters analyze unique features of the amendment along with its elusive meanings and affirm its power to reform criminal and immigration law, affirmative action policies, and the protection of civil liberties.
Editorial Reviews
Review
…this book is an informative treatment of a depressing subject.–Helen Knowles “H-Law”
A riveting, provocative collection of essays by what can only be described as an all-star team of historians and legal analysts.–Michael S. Green “Journal of the Civil War Era”
An important addition to the scholarship on an important aspect of America’s constitutional heritage…. Highly recommended.Choice– “Choice”
This volume is well edited and the essayists expertly chosen. Alexander Tsesis of Loyola University Chicago School of Law has assembled an unusually compact and cogent collection of the best work on the Thirteenth Amendment.–Christopher Waldrep “Journal of American History”
About the Author
Alexander Tsesis is a professor at the Loyola University School of Law. He is the author of We Shall Overcome: A History of Civil Rights and the Law; The Thirteenth Amendment and American Freedom; and Destructive Messages: How Hate Speech Paves the Way for Harmful Social Movements.
