Books by "Thomas L. Haskell"
12 books found
Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of Louisiana and in the Superior Court of the Territory of Louisiana. [1809-1896]
by Louisiana. Supreme Court, Thomas Courtland Manning, François-Xavier Martin, Merritt M. Robinson
1910
"An original, ambitious, and consistently provocative book that should change the way we study and teach American history." --Eric Foner, Columbia University In this major book, Thomas Bender recasts the developments central to American history by setting them in a global context, and showing both the importance and ordinariness of America's international entanglements over five centuries. Bender focuses on five major themes, beginning with 1492 and "the age of discovery," when people everywhere first felt the transforming effects of oceanic trade. He asks us to see our Revolution as one of several similar rebellions around the globe, and the Civil War as part of a larger history associating the new meaning of nationhood with freedom. He also examines the American commitment to empire from Jefferson's presidency to our own time, and makes it clear that America's responses to capitalist industrialization and urbanization were part of a worldwide conversation.
A description of the jobs in a labor force, an "occupational" description of it, is an abstraction for describing the flow of concrete work that goes through one or more employing organizations; the flow of work proba bly changes at a higher speed than the system for abstracting a descrip tion of its occupations and jobs. A career system is an abstraction for describing the flow of workers through a system of occupations or jobs, and thus is doubly removed from the flow of work. The federal civil service, however, ties many of the incentives and much of the authority to the flow of work through the abstractions of its career system, and still more of them through its system of job descriptions. The same dependence of the connection between reward and performance on abstractions about jobs and careers characterizes most white-collar work in large organizations. The system of abstractions from the flow of work of the federal civil service, described here by Thomas A. DiPrete, is an institution, a set of valued social practices created in a long and complex historical process. The system is widely imitated, especially in American state and local governments, but also in the white-collar parts of many large private corporations and nonprofit organizations and to some degree by gov ernments abroad. DiPrete has done us a great service in studying the historical origins of this system of abstractions, especially of the career abstractions.
American Literary Realism and the Failed Promise of Contract
by Brook Thomas
2023 · Univ of California Press
In American Literary Realism and the Failed Promise of Contract, the author explores the interplay between contract law and literary realism in late nineteenth-century America, a time when both contract law and realism shaped cultural, legal, and social landscapes. The text argues that while contract law in theory emphasized the freedom to negotiate obligations among individuals, it fell short in practice by failing to dismantle deeply entrenched inequalities associated with race, class, and gender. The era’s literature mirrored this dynamic, as authors highlighted the gap between the idealized promises of contractual freedom and the enduring constraints of status. Through this lens, literary realism not only reflected society’s inequities but also critiqued the legal and social systems that perpetuated them. Realism, which sought to represent everyday life in a grounded, unembellished way, intersected with the contract’s promise by portraying social relations as complex and negotiated, yet constrained by systemic hierarchies. Works like Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and James’s The American evoke moments where relationships of status could theoretically transform into equitable, "contractual" interactions. However, these fictional moments of promise often falter, reflecting contract's inability to establish a truly egalitarian social order. The rise of corporate capitalism further complicated contract’s promise, as corporations fostered a form of economic structure that subordinated individual agency, reinforcing rather than alleviating social inequities. The text also considers how these issues resonate today, especially as contractual ideals influence contemporary notions of social justice. While the promise of contract continues to appeal to a vision of equal opportunity, the persistent influence of race, class, and gender hierarchies complicates its realization. The author suggests that revisiting works of realism offers valuable insights into these ongoing tensions, challenging readers to reimagine a society where individuals might genuinely be “free and equal,” not just in theory but in practice. In doing so, this book presents realism not as an endorsement of the status quo but as a field of critical inquiry, urging us to address the unresolved questions about equity that persist in American society. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1997.
At a time of much unease in academia and among the general public about the relation of intellect to public life, Thomas Bender explores both the 19th-century origins and the 20th-century configurations of academic intellect in the United States. "Bender's positive, generous civil voice injects a soothing dose of optimism into current academic debates . . . ".--AMERICAN QUARTERLY.