Past Conferences

Law & the Disappearance of Class in the Twentieth-Century United States
November 15-17, 2002

This conference is animated by the sense of the conference organizers that political rhetoric and debate have almost entirely elided issues of class in recent years. As Hendrik Hartog remarked during the 2000 Presidential Primaries, for example, neither candidate seemed capable of recognizing that many of the most important questions they debated were deeply tied to questions of class and class relations. This near invisibility of class rhetoric was striking as the century had been marked by transformations that profoundly affected class structure, relationships, and identities.

Historians have argued that class, like race and gender, should be central to historical inquiry. Equally important, the prominence of law in the major topics of twentieth century history - increasingly apparent as more and more the twentieth century becomes fodder for historical analysis - emphasizes the role of class in both scholarship and politics. The elaboration of the administrative state in the post-New Deal era has extended the reach of the legal system, penetrating all aspects of society. Race and racial justice, rights-consciousness, labor, legal practice and legal doctrine, crime, immigration -- all vital topics of twentieth-century developments in law and class -- form the nucleus of this conference.

In positing the unique alterations of the twentieth century, we do not wish to suggest a wholesale change in the relationship between law and society, nor define its periodization. Rather, we argue for extending earlier historical analyses that focus on class into the twentieth century and organizing them around the articulations of the legal system that are relevant to this period. The anti-globalization protests, Bush v. Gore, the dot-com bubble bursting, the September 11 tragedy, and the Enron bankruptcy suggest that the beginning of this new millennium will be marked by a dynamic reformulation of our social identities and political relationships. The potential for change only underscores the importance of understanding the often hidden changes of the last century.

In response to our call for papers, the organizers of this conference received a wealth of proposals that addressed a wide array of topics from diverse methodologies. The proposals underscored that labor and civil rights are animating topics for twentieth-century American history. Scholars are eager to consider both law and class as lenses through which to revisit twentieth-century historiography. The papers included in the conference offer a chance to begin a discussion of how law and legal theory maintained and justified class hierarchies as well as helped hide them from political view in the twentieth century.

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