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

“With the acute understanding of a veteran legal historian, McCurdy dissects the arguments and strategies of the chief protagonists in the conflict, proceeding carefully through the legislature, press, a constitutional convention, and relevant court decisions. His ability to clarify complex issues and decode devious stratagems is impressive. . . . [This] study opens up vistas showing the manifold ways in which politicians/lawyers shaped the possibilities for democratic reform.” — CHOICE

“Exhaustively-researched and richly detailed.” — New York Law Journal

“[A] deeply-researched and wonderfully detailed legal and political analysis. . . . McCurdy is a masterful guide, leading the reader through the intricacies of . . . law, the dynamics of self-interested party politics, and the complex interaction of national and state affairs. . . . An extraordinarily rewarding [read], perhaps the best study of nineteenth-century law and politics now in print.” — Journal of the Early Republic

“This book is worth reading for its detailed and engaging description of the Anti-Rent movement itself and for the light it sheds on the legal and political context framing the controversy.” — Harvard Law Review

“Provides essential political history and expertly, lucidly dissects . . . court decisions and statutes. . . . McCurdy masterfully demonstrates how national politics repeatedly had a significant impact on the anti-rent struggle. . . . Splendid. . . . Clear and comprehensive.” — Law & Social Inquiry

“[This book] serves as an important reminder of the value of institutional studies and their limitations. [McCurdy’s] account of the apparently sincere struggle to find a legal solution to the heightening problems on the manors is a fascinating read.” — Reviews in American History

“McCurdy offers us a compelling cautionary tale about the need to understand the limits and constraints of democratic institutions in our past and our present.” — Virginia Quarterly Review

“Well-researched and elegantly written, McCurdy’s book admirably fills the need for a thorough legal history of Anti-Rent and sets the standard for scholarly inquiry into the episode.” — New York History

“Charles McCurdy has written a meticulously researched, exemplary study of the Anti-rent wars.” — Law and History Review

“Charles McCurdy not only provides a much more thorough and detailed account of the Anti-Rent movements than anyone has ever given before, but throws a brilliant light on property law, constitutional law and party politics in mid-nineteenth century America. The result is extremely impressive, the work of a master craftsman at the top of his form. In the depth of its research, its intellectual force and precision, its relation of an exceedingly complex story with clarity and verve, this book is first-rate in every way. It is a remarkably illuminating case study in how political ideologies shape and condition legal visions, and legal opportunities and constraints in turn shape and condition political strategies.” — Robert W. Gordon, Yale University