The Anti-rent Era in New York Law and Politics, 1839-1865

Book excerpt: The Anti-Rent movement impelled the state's governors, legislators, and judges to abolish an archaic form of land tenure at the root of the violent rent strike. Blending legal and political history, this book chronicles the largest tenant rebellion in US history. Instead of treating law and politics as dependent variables, this work highlights the ways in which law and politics shaped both the pattern of Anti- Rent violence and the drive for land reform. It explores the changing structure of legal doctrine that constrained political actors, and the effects of legal and political discourse on the strategies of the activists and their landlord antagonists. McCurdy teaches history and law at the University of Virginia. Annotation copyrighted by Book News Inc., Portland, OR