Böcker av William E. Nelson

Nelson identifies three principal institutions involved in conflict resolution: the twon meeting, the church congregation, and the courts of law. He subsequently determines the type of cases over which each institution had jurisdiction and studies the procedures by which each functioned.

Analyses the ideological changes that grew out of the American Revolution and caused substantial structural change in the legal and social order of Massachusetts and the nation at large. A new preface discusses the historiographical issues that have arisen since this book was first published.

In a remarkably fresh and historically grounded reinterpretation of the American Constitution, William Nelson argues that the fourteenth amendment was written to affirm the general public's long-standing rhetorical commitment to the principles of equality and individual rights on the one hand, and to the principle of local self-rule on the other.