By Ruth Ellen Wasem

This article uses a multidisciplinary approach — analyzing historical sources, refugee and asylum admissions data, legislative provisions, and public opinion data — to track the rise and fall of the US asylum and refugee policy. It shows that there has always been a political struggle between people who advocate for a generous refugee and asylum system and those who oppose it. Today, the flexible system of protecting refugees and asylees, established in 1980, is giving way to policies that weaponize them.

It offers a historical analysis of US refugee and asylum policies, as well as xenophobic and nativist attitudes toward refugees. It places Trump administration refugee policies in three categories: those that abandon longstanding US legal principles and policies, most notably non-refoulement and due process; those that block the entry of refugees and asylees; and those that criminalize foreign nationals who attempt to seek asylum in the United States.

The article concludes with an analysis of public opinion research to square the growing public support for refugees and asylees shown in polling data with the subgroup popularity of Donald Trump’s harsh xenophobic rhetoric and policies. These seemingly contradictory trends are consistent with research on right-wing populism. It argues that the restoration of generous humanitarian policies requires robust civic engagement and steadfast legislative efforts.

Journal on Migration and Human Security Volume 8, Issue 3, September 2020, Pages 246-265

BY GEORGE PADMORE

The document details the severe exploitation and oppression of Negro workers across various regions, including British, French, Belgian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Italian Africa. It discusses the conditions of black slaves in the United States, the West Indies, and Latin America, highlighting the brutal realities of slavery and its lasting impacts. The book describes the awakening and revolutionary movements among Negro workers in different regions, emphasizing their struggles for freedom and better living conditions, and outlines the role of imperialist powers in exploiting Negro workers and the economic and social challenges faced by these communities under imperialist rule.

R.I.L.U. Magazine for the International Union Committee of Negro Workers London, 1931. 125p.

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BY CHARLES SUMNER.

“HISTORY has been sometimes called a gallery, where, in living forms, are preserved the scenes, the incidents, and the characters of the past. It may also be called the world's great charnel house, where are gathered coffins, dead men's bones, and all the uncleanness of the years that have fled.”

Massachusetts. JOHN P. JEWETT AND COMPANY, 1853. 134p.

By Rajan Khatiwoda

The main ambition of this book lies in a detailed analysis of the formation and enforcement of Nepal’s Mulukī Ain of 1854, specifically focusing on the provisions regarding homicide within the Mulukī Ains of 1854 and 1870. This study also examines contemporaneous legal records, revealing the complexities of the Ain’s implementation. The articles on homicide serve as a microcosm illustrating the broader evolution of Nepal’s legal code, which departed from outdated punishments like genital mutilation and introduced fines and imprisonment instead. Still, the innovations introduced into the Ain of 1854 were not uniformly progressive. The Ain in its various stages of development thus showcases the complex ways in which legal systems inevitably undergo transformation.

Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing (heiUP), 2024. 439p.

By Oscar Vilhena Vieira

In 2013, Brazil faced political and social upheaval, amid widescale public protests over economic challenges and startling revelations of corruption in the Operation Car Wash investigation. The crisis led to a presidential impeachment and the election of a far-right politician, Jair Bolsonaro, in 2018.

In a new book, “Battle of Powers,” Oscar Vilhena Vieira examines the historical and institutional context of this tumultuous period in recent Brazilian history. In doing so, he offers a reminder of the dangers extremist political movements pose for the rule of law in Brazil and elsewhere, and the importance of constitutional barriers to contain authoritarian cycles. The book also demonstrates how the failure of a government to deliver basic public goods can gradually erode democratic culture and open opportunities for political movements that are less willing to accept institutional constraints on executive power.

Wilson Center and FGV Sao Paulo Law School, 2024

By Ethan Blue

As banks crashed, belts tightened, and cupboards emptied across the country, American prisons grew fat. Doing Time in the Depression tells the story of the 1930s as seen from the cell blocks and cotton fields of Texas and California prisons, state institutions that held growing numbers of working people from around the country and the world—overwhelmingly poor, disproportionately non-white, and displaced by economic crisis. Ethan Blue paints a vivid portrait of everyday life inside Texas and California’s penal systems. Each element of prison life—from numbing boredom to hard labor, from meager pleasure in popular culture to crushing pain from illness or violence—demonstrated a contest between keepers and the kept. From the moment they arrived to the day they would leave, inmates struggled over the meanings of race and manhood, power and poverty, and of the state itself. In this richly layered account, Blue compellingly argues that punishment in California and Texas played a critical role in producing a distinctive set of class, race, and gender identities in the 1930s, some of which reinforced the social hierarchies and ideologies of New Deal America, and others of which undercut and troubled the established social order. He reveals the underside of the modern state in two very different prison systems, and the making of grim institutions whose power would only grow across the century.

New York; London: New York University Press, 2012.

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By JARED DIAMOND

Guns, Germs, and Steel: A Short History of Everybody for the Last 13,000 Years by Jared Diamond is a groundbreaking exploration into the complex tapestry of human history. Diamond delves deep into the factors that have shaped the destinies of civilizations over millennia, examining the roles of geography, biology, and culture in determining the fates of societies worldwide. Through meticulous research and compelling analysis, Diamond uncovers the interconnected forces that have influenced the rise and fall of nations, challenging conventional narratives of human development. A thought-provoking and illuminating read, Guns, Germs, and Steel offers a fresh perspective on the evolution of human societies and the legacies that continue to shape our world today.

NY. Penguin. Vintage. 1997.. 662p.

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By W.E. BURGHARDT DU BOIS..

"The Suppression of the African Slave-Trade to the United States of America 1638-1870" by W.E.B. Du Bois is a seminal work that delves into the complex history of the abolition of the African slave trade in the United States. Through meticulous research and profound analysis, Du Bois provides a detailed account of the efforts and challenges faced in ending this heinous practice that marred American history for centuries.

Du Bois's insightful narrative sheds light on the social, economic, and political forces that shaped the trajectory of the slave trade in America. By exploring the legal battles, international pressures, and moral dilemmas surrounding the abolitionist movement, this book offers a comprehensive understanding of the long and arduous journey towards eradicating one of the darkest chapters in American history.

A must-read for anyone interested in American history, human rights, and the enduring legacy of slavery, "The Suppression of the African Slave-Trade to the United States of America 1638-1870" stands as a poignant reminder of the resilience of those who fought against injustice and the ongoing struggle for equality and freedom.

Volume I. Harvard Historical Historical Studies. Longmans, Green, and Co. New York. 1896. 503p.

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By R. R. PALMER

The World of the French Revolution by R. R. Palmer provides a comprehensive exploration of one of the most tumultuous periods in history. Delving into the political, social, and cultural landscapes of late 18th-century France, Palmer offers readers a detailed analysis of the events leading up to and following the French Revolution. Through meticulous research and engaging prose, this book sheds light on the key figures, ideologies, and revolutions that shaped the course of modern history. A must-read for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of this pivotal moment in time.

NY. Harper Torchbooks. 1971. 289p.

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Edited by Joseph and Barrie Klaits

"The ties between people and animals are as mysterious and as obvious as the mutual devotion of a boy and his dog. We catch glimpses of these ties when we watch a circus parade, when we see someone's pet crushed in an accident, or when we witness the birth of kittens. Exhilaration, compassion, wonder-intangible responses like these are this book's raisons d'être.

"We have collected a series of readings that attempt to analyze such responses.,. The authors share a concern with the issue we have regarded as the leitmotif of this book: What do man's attitudes and behavior toward animals tell us about the historical development of human society and culture?" - from the Introduction.

NY. Harper and Row, Publishers. 1974. 177p.

By Stephan Conermann, Claudia Rauhut, Ulrike Schmieder and Michael Zeuske

In the recent cultural heritage boom, community-based and national identity projects are intertwined with interest in cultural tourism and sites of the memory of enslavement. Questions of historical guilt and present responsibility have become a source of social conflict, particularly in multicultural societies with an enslaving past. This became apparent in the context of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, when statues of enslavers and colonizers were toppled, controversial debates about streets and places named after them re-ignited, and the European Union apologized for slavery after the racist murder of George Floyd. Related debates focus on museums, on artworks acquired unjustly in societies under colonial rule, the question of whether and how museums should narrate the hidden past of enslavement and colonialism, including their own colonial origins with respect to narratives about presumed European supremacy, and the need to establish new monuments for the enslaved, their resistance, and abolitionists of African descent.

Berlin/Boston:DeGruyter, 2024, 352p.

Edited by Lyndsay Campbell, Ted McCoy, and Mélanie Méthot

An introduction to Canadian legal history featuring new approaches to legal scholarship. Essential reading for all those interested in Canadian legal methodologies, especially new and beginning scholars. Canada’s Legal Pasts presents new essays on a range of topics and episodes in Canadian legal history, provides an introduction to legal methodologies, shows researchers new to the field how to locate and use a variety of sources, and includes a combined bibliography arranged to demonstrate best practices in gathering and listing primary sources. It is an essential welcome for scholars who wish to learn about Canada’s legal pasts—and why we study them. Telling new stories—about a fishing vessel that became the subject of an extraordinarily long diplomatic dispute, young Northwest Mounted Police constables subject to an odd mixture of police discipline and criminal procedure, and more—this book presents the vibrant evolution of Canada’s legal tradition. Explorations of primary sources, including provincial archival records that suggest how Quebec courts have been used in interfamilial conflict, newspaper records that disclose the details of bigamy cases, and penitentiary records that reveal the details of the lives and legal entanglements of Canada’s most marginalized people, show the many different ways of researching and understanding legal history. This is Canadian legal history as you’ve never seen it before. Canada’s Legal Pasts dives into new topics in Canada’s fascinating history and presents practical approaches to legal scholarship, bringing together established and emerging scholars in a collection essential for researchers at all levels.

Calgary, Alberta: University of Calgary Press, 2020. 372p.

Edited by Herbert R. Reginbogin, ‎Christoph Safferling

60 years after the trials of the main German war criminals, the articles in this book attempt to assess the Nuremberg Trials from a historical and legal point of view, and to illustrate connections, contradictions and consequences. In view of constantly recurring reports of mass crimes from all over the world, we have only reached the halfway point in the quest for an effective system of international criminal justice. With the legacy of Nuremberg in mind, this volume is a contribution to the search for answers to questions of how the law can be applied effectively and those committing crimes against humanity be brought to justice for their actions.

Berlin: De Gruyter Saur, 2006. 320p.

By Roger Bartlett

The jurist and philosopher, Jeremy Bentham, and his lesser-known brother, Samuel, equally talented but as a naval architect, engineer and inventor, had a long love affair with Russia. Jeremy hoped to assist Empress Catherine II with her legislative projects. Samuel went to St Petersburg to seek his fortune in 1780 and came back with the rank of Brigadier-General and the idea, famously publicised by Jeremy, of the Inspection-House or Panopticon. The Bentham Brothers and Russia chronicles the brothers’ later involvement with the Russian Empire, when Jeremy focused his legislative hopes on Catherine’s grandson Emperor Alexander I (ruled 1801-25) and Samuel found a unique opportunity in 1806 to build a Panopticon in St Petersburg – the only panoptical building ever built by the Benthams themselves. Setting the Benthams’ projects within an in-depth portrayal of the Russian context, Roger Bartlett illuminates an important facet of their later careers and offers insight into their world view and way of thought. He also contributes towards the history of legal codification in Russia, which reached a significant peak in 1830, and towards the demythologising of the Panopticon, made notorious by Michel Foucault: the St Petersburg building, still relatively unknown, is described here in detail on the basis of archival sources. The Benthams’ interactions with Russia under Alexander I constituted a remarkable episode in Anglo-Russian relations; this book fills a significant gap in their history.

London: UCL Press, 2022. 322p.

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By Caroline Alexander

"With all the drama and intrigue of a rollicking adventure novel, Alexander's beautifully written and painstakingly researched book goes a long way to rehabilitate one of history's most notorious villains: Bounty commander Lt. William Bligh. Through letters, court testimony, and personal diaries, Alexander vividly re-creates the mutiny, the details of which changed, Rashomon-like, depending on the crew member telling the story." -Entertainment Weekly

"A captivating and properly salty account. The Bounty is a retelling of a remembered story in the grand manner. Alexander is particularly good at bringing to the fore lesser-known parts of the Bounty's story." -The Boston Globe

NY. Penguin. 2003. 542p.

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By Sam Harris

FROM THE COVER: “In The End of Faith, Sam Harris delivers a startling analysis of the clash between reason and religion in the modern world. He offers a vivid, historical tour of our willingness to suspend reason in favor of religious beliefs- even when these beliefs inspire the worst of human atrocities. While warning against the encroachment of organized religion into world politics, Harris draws on insights from neuroscience, philosophy, and Eastern mysticism to deliver a call for a truly modern foundation for ethics and spirituality that is both secular and humanistic.

"The End of Faith is a genuinely frightening book. ... Read Sam Harris and wake up." -Richard Dawkins, The Guardian

NY. W•W• Norton. 2004. 341p.

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By Erik H. Erikson

FROM THE PREFACE: “This study of Martin Luther as a young man was planned as a chapter in a book on emotional crises in late adolescence and early adulthood, But Luther proved too bulky a man to be merely a chapter. His young manhood is one of the most radical on record: whatever he became part of, whatever became part of him, was eventually destroyed or rejuvenated. The clinical chapter became a historical book. But since clinical work is integral to its orientation, I will, in this preface, enlarge briefly on my colleagues and my patients, and our common foci of preoccupation…”

NY. W.W-Norton & Company. 1962. 289p.

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By Susan Jacoby

FROM THE JACKET: At a time when the separation of church and state is under attack as never before, Freethinkers celebrates the noble and essential secularist heritage that gave Americans the first government in the world founded not on the authority of religion but on the bedrock of human reason. In impassioned, elegant prose, Susan Jacoby offers a powerful defense of more than two hundred years of secularist activism, beginning with the fierce debate over the omission of God from the Constitution. Moving from nineteenth-century abolitionism and suffragism through the twentieth-century's civil liberties, civil rights, and feminist movements, Freethinkers illuminates the neglected accomplishments of secularists who, allied with tolerant and liberal religious believers, have stood at the forefront of the battle for social reforms opposed by reactionaries in the past and today. Rich with such iconic figures as Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, James Madison, Abraham Lincoln, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Clarence Darrow--as well as once-famous secularists such as Robert Green Ingersoll, "the Great Agnostic"-Freethinkers restores to history generations of dedicated humanist champions. It is they, Jacoby shows, who have led the struggle to uphold the unique combination of secular government and religious liberty that is and always has been the glory of the American system.

NY. Henry Holt and Company. 2004. 441p.

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By Dennis Sullivan

FROM THE COVER: “Based in a highly profitable fur trade, the seventeenth century Dutch criminal justice system of the upper Hudson River Valley regulated the community with an eye toward not only maintaining peaceful social relations, but also preserving the economic system that allowed the community to survive. This work examines the punishment practices of the Beverwijck/Albany court during the seventeenth century, delineating changes that occurred in those practices amid fluctuations in the fur trade and after the English conquest of New Netherland in 1664. This study shows that punishment practices were integrally linked to the economic status of the community and, after English conquest, to the introduction ofEnglish law.

"Dennis Sullivan's study of the punishment of crime in the upper Hudson Valley will be a major contribution to the growing bibliography of works relating to New Netherland. Researchers who work with primary source material will appreciate his rigorous use of the Dutch records at the New York State Archives. Sullivan has added another piece to the mosaic which will one day reveal New York's unique and rich colonial beginnings." — Charles Gehring, Director of the New Netherland Project

NY. Peter Lang, 1997. 367p.

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By Ann Cornelisen

FROM THE COVER: “This is the painful, heroic story of five contemporary peasant women in souther Italy- Peppina, Ninetta, Teresa, Pinuccia, Cettina. For these women and others like them, marriage is a practical and religious necessity although men and women spend very little time together once married. Many men leave their families to seek sporadic work in the cities or in other countries, and those who remain spend all of their free time with other men. Their wives are left to their own devices, and it is their earnings and their efforts that largely support the family….”

NY. Vintage. 1997. 247p.