Popular Trials
FYS 034 -- William Lewis -- Fall 1999 -- Medbury 216
Office Hours: MWF 1-2 TR 10:45-11:30271-2194 or by appointment
william.lewis@drake.edu
Two statements, both true:
Popular trials are a distinctive form of public discourse. They are the place where journalism and law meet.
In part, the trials are about the cases--deciding OJ's guilt or innocence, whether cigarette manufacturers are really liable for the harms caused by smoking, whether Bill Gates is the model of a successful entrepreneur or a predatory monopolist, and whether Bill Clinton was guilty of an impeachable offense, or just private immorality, poor judgment, or bad taste.
In part, they are about the law-just how "just" is our law, and how ought it to be practiced? What type of behavior is appropriate for lawyers? What activities are to be considered criminal and which just immoral or unpleasant or different?
In part they are about the greatest and least settled issues in American society--what is the proper relation between science and religion? Is the federal government being subverted from within? What is the proper relation of men and of women to public and to private life?
In part they are about the characters involved--about great legal personalities like Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan; about great celebrities like Charles Lindbergh and OJ Simpson; about great businessmen and petty criminals; about the very rich and, sometimes, the very poor, or the most ordinary middle class.
In part they are about scandal and melodrama--about sex and violence and the most tawdry or titillating details of the lives of the parties involved.
Whatever else they are, popular trials are public performances subject to intense scrutiny and extensive conversation.
This course will examine these performances, examine controversies surrounding their reporting and representation, consider the issues they raise, and study the trials themselves. In a broad sense, this course is about the meanings of law in American society and about the definitions of American society revealed in legal disputes. It is about the ways in which the most public trials offer competing visions of community, struggle to structure understandings, and both encourage and challenge definitions of self and social situations. How that happens, and what difference it makes, is the content of the course.
The course will function as an extended seminar. By that I mean that it will be grounded in the seminar format--intensive discussion of issues and readings, groups work, presentations by students, and writing, re-writing, and discussion of the writing. Computers also can help to enrich and extend our conversation:
Writing: Each of the papers for the course will be a reasoned response to a question or task that I will provide. The length of the papers will vary from short (2 pages max.) to more extended consideration in longer papers (5-10 pages). These limits are not intended to force you to either extend or to cut short your thinking, but they are meant to give you some guidelines and to encourage discipline and revision. Sometimes you will get excited about an idea or an issue and want to write more. Fine, as long as the paper is thoughtfully structured and carefully written. There may be times when you can say all you need to say in less than the apparent minimum. Fine, as long as your argument is complete and explained fully. Writing is a process of continuing revision and discovery. Sometimes you will surprise yourself. We often don't know what we think until we write it out.
The papers will be another basis for conversation in the class. You should expect that we will talk about each other's papers in the class, sometimes after they have been submitted, sometimes before they are due.
Grades will be based on the papers, the class discussion, and group participation. Revision of the papers is always available and encouraged.
Incompletes are possible only if a student suffers a medical or familial emergency, and agrees to a plan for completing the course.
Course Structure
The Nature of Popular Trials
Possibilities for Interpreting Popular Trials: Marriage and the family in 19th century America
Examining Popular Trials
Final Project: Paper and Report on a Popular Trial