Our second issue of 2021 features two forums. The first, “Rethinking the Criminalization of Childbirth: Infanticide in Premodern Europe and the Modern Americas,” offers new methods and approaches to the history of infanticide. The forum grew out of a roundtable panel at the 2019 meeting of the American Historical Association in Chicago. An introductory essay by Sara McDougall and Felicity Turner explains the central themes of the contributions as well as the contemporary salience of this scholarship. McDougall's study of royal pardon and miracle stories illustrates that late medieval French Christian norms underscored a tradition of pardoning women for suspected infanticide. Sara Beam's study of Calvin-era Geneva quietly looked away from pregnancies that resulted from extramarital relationships. Nora Jaffary's study of infanticide trials in nineteenth-century Puebla, Mexico, identifies a shift from a previous reluctance toward a more rigorous approach to prosecuting women for infanticide. Felicity Turner's history of the nineteenth-century United States sees a similar change over time.
The second forum in this volume is a continuation of our symposium in August 2019, “Originalism and Legal History: Rethinking the Special Relationship.” Jonathan Gienapp's article urges scholars interested in constitutional Originalism to focus on the Constitution itself, rather than meaning. Gienapp demonstrates how the early history of the Constitution complicates originalists understanding of the document, and challenges originalists to take seriously the “original Constitution.” John Mikhail's response to Gienapp broadly concurs that the original Constitution poses an ontological challenge that originalists must heed before shifting their attention to discerning meaning.
In addition to several book reviews, we are also pleased to offer two review essays. Susan Bartie seeks to place in historical and historiographical context academic autobiographies by two giants of modern law, Harry Arthurs and William Twining. Nick Mayhew explores Christine Desan's momentous volume on the history of currency, Making Money: Coin, Currency, and the Coming of Capitalism (2019).
The Docket, our digital imprint, continues to publish features, book reviews, and other content, at lawandhistoryreview.org. Readers interested in contributing to The Docket will find contact information on the website.
Readers can keep track of the latest goings on at Law and History Review through our Twitter account @history_law. The American Society for Legal History's redesigned website can be accessed at https://aslh.net, for all the Society's latest announcements and news. The Society's Twitter account is @ASLHtweets.
