Another version of my piece on impeachment, empire, Edmund Burke, and the Hastings case of 1787-1795, this one for the Boston Review.
Category Archives: Writings
Impeachment: The Eighteenth Century and Now
Back to the theme of this blog: some thoughts for the admirable Age of Revolutions website about the impeachment of Warren Hastings (as governor-general of India) in Britain from 1788-1795 and the impeachment of President Trump.
A short interview on my current project
A brief Q&A discussing my current research project and related issues.
“‘No Body to be Kicked’? Monopoly, Financial Crisis, and Popular Revolt in 18th-Century Haiti and America”
Just out in Law and Literature: “‘No Body to be Kicked’? Monopoly, Financial Crisis, and Popular Revolt in 18th-Century Haiti and America.”
Here’s the abstract:
“Contemporary law and legal theory are resigned to the view that the corporation is a mere nexus of contracts, a legal person lacking both body and soul. This essay explores that commitment to the immateriality of the corporation through a discussion of the 18th-century revolt against the Indies Company in Saint-Domingue (Haiti) and British North America. Opponents of the joint-stock monopoly in these Atlantic settings believed, like critics of transnational corporate power today, that the company form represented a merger of wealth and power operating to subvert the liberties of disenfranchised outsiders. Financial crisis served to destabilize the fiscal and political environment that insulated the Indies Company from its critics, who took advantage of these openings by attacking the material embodiments of the corporation in the name of “free trade.” The 18th-century opposition to monopoly privilege suggests that corporate personality was neither dismissed as fiction nor accepted as reality, and that in some circumstances, at least, the corporate body could indeed be held to account for the sins of a person without conscience.”
Interview with “New Books in Caribbean Studies”
Although the book is not quite so “new” anymore, I enjoyed doing this recent interview on The Old Regime and the Haitian Revolution with Dan Livesay, editor of the “New Books in Caribbean Studies” podcast series. An embedded link to the podcast appears directly below.
The Imitation Monticello and “Black Histories Matter”
In connection with a recent piece co-authored with Erica Caple James entitled “Black Histories Matter” that appears in the current issue of Perspectives, the AHA newsletter, here are photos (by ECJ) of the Somers, CT replica of Jefferson’s Monticello. The article includes a photo of the original.
Review of Ronald Johnson on John Adams and Toussaint Louverture
My review of Ronald Johnson’s excellent and important book Diplomacy in Black and White: John Adams, Toussaint Louverture, and Their Atlantic World Alliance (University of Georgia Press, 2014), for The Journal of Southern History, vol. LXXXI, no. 2, May 2015, pp. 448-450.
Accommodating Empire: Comparing French and American Paths to the Legalization of Gay Marriage
Just published in the Southern California Law Review, my essay on empire, immigration, Islam, and the legalization of gay marriage in France and the United States. The full cite is 88 S. Cal. L. Rev. 511 (2015).
An interview on The Old Regime and the Haitian Revolution
Here is a recent interview with “Faculti” on my book The Old Regime and the Haitian Revolution:
Religious Liberty and the Financial War on Terror
About to come out in volume 12 of First Amendment Law Review, my essay on “Religious Liberty and the Financial War on Terror.” You can find a “draft” typeset version here; for the official and final published version please see FALR. N.b.: the article deals with some highly controversial cases involving Muslim charities in the post-9/11 era. Please read before drawing conclusions.