The University
Press of Missisippi is publishing a book on the popular understanding of laws
and the constitution in Mississippi next month.
ABOUT THE BOOK
James L.
Robertson focuses on folk encountering their constitutions and laws, in their
courthouses and country stores, and in their daily lives, animating otherwise
dry and inaccessible parchments. Robertson begins at statehood and continues
through war and depression, well into the 1940s. He tells of slaves petitioning
for freedom, populist sentiments fueling abnegation of the rule of law, the
state's many schemes for enticing Yankee capital to lift a people from poverty,
and its sometimes tragic, always colorful romance with whiskey after the demise
of national Prohibition. Each story is sprinkled with fascinating but
heretofore unearthed facts and circumstances.
Robertson delves
into the prejudices and practices of the times, local landscapes, and daily
life and its dependence on our social compact. He offers the unique perspective
of a judge, lawyer, scholar, and history buff, each role having tempered the
lessons of the others. He focuses on a people, enriching encounters most know
little about. Tales of understanding and humanity covering 130 years of heroes,
rascals, and ordinary folk--with a bundle of engaging surprises--leave the
reader pretty sure there's nothing quite like Mississippi history told by a
sage observer.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JAMES L.
ROBERTSON, Jackson, Mississippi, is a practicing lawyer and active life member
of the American Law Institute. A graduate of the Harvard Law School, he served
on the Supreme Court of Mississippi for ten years and taught law at the
University of Mississippi and elsewhere.
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