Civil Rights in America: A History (Cambridge Studies on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties)

Schmidt, Christopher W.

ISBN 10: 1108444970 / ISBN 13: 9781108444972

Published by Cambridge University Press, 2020

About this Item

Seller Inventory # V9781108444972

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Civil Rights in America: A History (Cambridge Studies on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties)
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication Date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1108444970
• ISBN 13: 9781108444972
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

The term 'civil rights' has such a familiar presence in discussions about American politics and law that we tend to use it reflexively and intuitively, but rarely do we stop to think about what exactly we mean when we use the term and why certain uses strike us as right or wrong. In this book, Professor Christopher W. Schmidt tells the story of how Americans have fought over the meaning of civil rights from the Civil War through today. Through their struggles over what it means to live in a nation dedicated to protecting civil rights, each generation has given the label new life and new meaning. Civil Rights in America shows how the words we use to understand our world become objects of contestation and points of leverage for social, political, and legal action.

About the Author

Christopher W. Schmidt is a professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law, where he serves as the Associate Dean for Faculty Development and co-director of the Institute on the Supreme Court of the United States, a Research Professor at the American Bar Foundation, and the editor of Law & Social Inquiry. Professor Schmidt received his Ph.D. in American Studies from Harvard University and his J.D. from Harvard Law School. He is the author of The Sit-Ins: Protest and Legal Change in the Civil Rights Era (2018).