Race and the Foundations of American Law - Nicole P. Dyszlewski

Race and the Foundations of American Law ISBN 9798889065784

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Written by a diverse team of scholars with deep expertise across multiple legal and professional fields, Race and the Foundations of American Law offers a transformative approach to understanding the role of race in shaping the American legal system. More than a historical account, this casebook uncovers how foundational legal structures created and perpetuate systems of racial oppression—and challenges students to consider how the law might be used to dismantle them.

This text centers the lived experiences of America’s many racialized communities while paying particular attention to the persistent legacy of anti-Blackness in U.S. legal doctrine and institutions. Through compelling storytelling, the use of real-world legal materials, and rich contextual framing—including statistics, media, and historical sources—this casebook is both accessible to students with no prior background and intellectually rigorous enough to support deep academic engagement.

Key Features and Benefits:

• Modular chapter design allows instructors to assign individual chapters alongside other casebooks or course materials for greater flexibility.
• Visual aids such as photographs, charts, and diagrams help bring complex legal and historical narratives to life.
• Boxed learning tools—including Want to Learn More, Time Out for Practice, Timeline, If You Like This, You’ll Like That, and There’s More to the Story—encourage active engagement, critical thinking, and further exploration.
• Diverse source materials include excerpts from judicial opinions, court filings, poems, book chapters, speeches, and law review articles.
• Conversational prompts, notes, and discussion questions foster meaningful class discussion and reflection.
• Integrated focus on practice offers students examples of lawyering in action, helping bridge doctrinal learning with practical application.

Race and the Foundations of American Law provides a vital, honest, and engaging look at how race and law intersect—and how future lawyers can play a role in building a more equitable legal system. Whether taught as a stand-alone course or integrated into broader constitutional, civil rights, or legal theory curricula, this casebook equips students to engage deeply with some of the most urgent issues in American law and society today.

Race and the Foundations of American Law First Edition ISBN 9798889065784 & 979-8889065784