1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910455462603321

Autore

Alexander Gregory S. <1948->

Titolo

Commodity & propriety [[electronic resource] ] : competing visions of property in American legal thought, 1776-1970 / / Gregory S. Alexander

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Chicago, : University of Chicago Press, 1997

ISBN

1-299-10448-7

0-226-01352-9

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (500 p.)

Disciplina

330.1/7

Soggetti

Property - Social aspects - United States - History

Property - United States - History

Civil society - United States - History

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 387-470) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- PART ONE: THE CIVIC REPUBLICAN CULTURE, 1776-1800 -- PART TWO: THE COMMERCIAL RLEPUBLICAN CULTURE, 1800-1860 -- PART THREE: THE INDUSTRIAL CULTURE 1870-1917 -- PART FOUR: THE LATE MODERN CULTURE 1917-1970 -- Epilogue -- Notes -- lndex

Sommario/riassunto

Most people understand property as something that is owned, a means of creating individual wealth. But in Commodity and Propriety, the first full-length history of the meaning of property, Gregory Alexander uncovers in American legal writing a competing vision of property that has existed alongside the traditional conception. Property, Alexander argues, has also been understood as proprietary, a mechanism for creating and maintaining a properly ordered society. This view of property has even operated in periods-such as the second half of the nineteenth century-when market forces seemed to dominate social and legal relationships. In demonstrating how the understanding of property as a private basis for the public good has competed with the better-known market-oriented conception, Alexander radically rewrites the history of property, with significant implications for current political



debates and recent Supreme Court decisions.