UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — “The Legal Geography of the Civil War Era and Its Lasting Legacy” is the theme of the three lectures being delivered Oct. 23-25 by Laura F. Edwards, Class of 1921 Bicentennial Professor in the History of American Law and Liberty at Princeton University, as part of the 2025 Steven and Janice Brose Distinguished Lecture Series.
Edwards is a historian and prize-winning author who focuses on the legal history of the 19th-century United States with an emphasis on federalism, the history of legal institutions, and people’s interactions with the law. Her most recent book, “Only the Clothes on Her Back: Clothing and the Hidden History of Power in the Nineteenth-Century United States,” combines legal history with material culture to reconstruct the parts of the legal system that allowed property ownership to those without property rights.
Edwads has written four other books, including “A Legal History of the Civil War and Reconstruction: A Nation of Rights” (2015) and “The People and Their Peace: Legal Culture and the Transformation of Inequality in the Post-Revolutionary South" (2009). She has received fellowships from the Newberry Library, the National Humanities Center, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Guggenheim Foundation and the American Bar Foundation.
Edwards’ three lectures will examine the legal terrain during the decades between the American Revolution and the Civil War, which is usually seen as a period of escalating sectional conflict — particularly over slavery. The lectures shift the focus from what divided the new public’s leaders to what united them.
All three lectures, which are free and open to the public, will be held as follows”:
- “Lawyers of Law: New Republic’s Unwritten Legal Terrain” — 5:30 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 23; Robb Hall, Hintz Alumni Family Center
- “Law in the Books: Writing New Maps” — 5:30 p.m., Friday, Oct. 24; Robb Hall, Hintz Alumni Family Center
- “The Limits of Law: Unforeseen Destinations, New Texts” — 11:30 a.m., Saturday, Oct. 25; Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library
This Brose Distinguished Lecture Series is offered by the George and Ann Richards Civil War Era Center through the generosity of an endowment created by Steven and Janice Brose. The series is co-sponsored by the University Libraries. For more information, contact the Richards Center at 814-863-0151 or visit the center’s website.