The Birth of American Law: An Italian Philosopher and the American Revolution

The Birth of American Law: An Italian Philosopher and the American Revolution tells the forgotten, untold story of the origins of U.S. law. Before the Revolutionary War, a 26-year-old Italian thinker, Cesare Beccaria, published On Crimes and Punishments, a runaway bestseller that shaped the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and early American laws. America\u27s Founding Fathers, including early U.S. Presidents, avidly read Beccaria\u27s book—a product of the Italian Enlightenment that argued against tyranny and the death penalty. Beccaria\u27s book shaped American views on everything from free speech to republicanism, to \u27\u27Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,\u27\u27 to gun ownership and the founders\u27 understanding of \u27\u27cruel and unusual punishments,\u27\u27 the famous phrase in the U.S. Constitution\u27s Eighth Amendment. In opposing torture and infamy, Beccaria inspired America\u27s founders to jettison England\u27s Bloody Code, heavily reliant on executions and corporal punishments, and to adopt the penitentiary system. The cast of characters in The Birth of American Law includes the usual suspects—George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and James Madison. But it also includes the now little-remembered Count Luigi Castiglioni, a botanist from Milan who—decades before Alexis de Tocqueville\u27s Democracy in America—toured all thirteen original American states before the 1787 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. Also figuring in this dramatic story of the American Revolution: Madison\u27s Princeton classmate William Bradford, an early U.S. Attorney General and Beccaria devotee; John Dickinson, the \u27\u27Penman of the Revolution\u27\u27 who wrote of Beccaria\u27s \u27\u27genius\u27\u27 and \u27\u27masterly hand\u27\u27; James Wilson and Dr. Benjamin Rush, signers of the Declaration of Independence and fellow Beccaria admirers; and Philip Mazzei, Jefferson\u27s Italian-American neighbor at Monticello and yet another Beccaria enthusiast. In documenting Beccaria\u27s game-changing influence, The Birth of American Law sheds important new light on the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the creation of American law. Winner, Scribes Book Award, The American Society of Legal Writers First Prize, 2015 American Association for Italian Studies Book Award (18th/19th century category) Gold Winner, 2014 IndieFab Book of the Year Award (History)https://scholarworks.law.ubalt.edu/fac_books/1018/thumbnail.jp