Virtuous Citizens, Disruptive Subjects: Order and Complaint in a New England Court.

Abstract

From the colonial period until the early 19th century, the country served as a people's court and a local peacekeeping force in New England communities. Today, the county has become the focal point for struggles over morality, community, and rights. Its subjects include not only affluent property owners but also the working class and welfare poor, the so-called other half of America. The book grapples with questions of agency and the production of social order, analyzing how the power of law can be mobilized to blur the distinctions between garbage and official law.