In Vagrant Nation, Risa Goluboff has found a way to explain how the interaction between 1960s social movements and the courts fundamentally changed both American law and society writ large. By look at the changing views regarding a minor type of crime-vagrancy-Goluboff shows how the courts were cast directly into the midst of the turmoil sweeping the nation.
With limpid and stylish prose and an eye for illustrative detail, Goluboff traces how the 'vagrancy law regime' came to be challenged and ultimately eliminated ... this compelling history, with its strong narrative flow, ranges widely beyond the chambers of the Supreme Court, offering a social history of legal change ... Vagrant Nation is a necessary contribution to the history of police and social movements in the postwar United States
