Iconic authors
Themes
Bibliography of the day
The Imagined Muslim President, How the Religious Test Passed from the Law to the Voter
When the federal Constitution dropped the religious test for office, its defenders met the fear of a Muslim president with a bet: such a man could never reach the presidency but in one of two cases, the first being that Americans laid aside the Christian religion altogether. The law fell silent, and the ballot inherited the test.
The Sweated Needle, or How the Minimum Wage Was Born in the Clothing Trades
The legal minimum wage was argued out over the sweated shirt. Its defenders accepted that underpaying trades might die under it. They never answered the harder objection: work, orders and cheap labour move, and the law can only follow.
