Legal Memories and Amnesias in America's Rhetorical Culture

Abstract

In Legal Memories and Amnesias in America's Rhetorical Culture, Marouf Hasian, Jr. critically examines the rhetoric of law--specifically, the shifting lines between the notions of liberty and license. Hasian, Jr. explores how such issues as immigration, labor, national identity, race, and genetics have caused society to change how it thinks about, and uses, laws. In Legal Memories and Amnesias in America's Rhetorical Culture, Marouf Hasian, Jr. critically examines the rhetoric of law--specifically, the shifting lines between the notions of liberty and license. Hasian, Jr. explores how issues such as immigration, labor, national identity, race, and genetics have caused society to change how it thinks about, and uses, laws. The author builds on critical race theory, feminist studies of the law, and critical legal studies, and he uses a case study framework that covers topics such as Sarah Roberts and the separate but equal doctrine, John Brown's enactment of natural law at Harper's Ferry, Typhoid Mary Mallon, the Holocaust, Susan Smith, the human genome project, and Rosewood. All of the aforementioned are tied together by an introduction that clearly delineates the basic theoretical stance of the book. Without a doubt, the subject of this book is provocative, timely, and timeless.