Cannons and Codes

This edited volume on war in law and literature addresses the many ways in which war affects human society and the many groups of people whose lives are affected by war. The essays, by preeminent scholars, discuss the ways in which literary works can shed light on legal thinking about war, and how a deep understanding of law can lead to interpretive insights on literary works. Some concern the lives of soldiers; others focus on civilians living in war zones, who are caught up in the conflict; still others address themselves to the home front, far from the theatre of war. By collecting such diverse perspectives, with contributions from preeminent scholars of philosophy, literature, and law, this volume aims to show how literature has reflected the totalizing nature of war and the ways in which it distorts law across domains.

Alison L. LaCroix is Robert Newton Reid Professor of Law and an Associate Member of the Department of History at the University of Chicago.
Jonathan S. Masur is the John P. Wilson Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School.
Martha C. Nussbaum is Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics in the Law School and the Philosophy Department at the University of Chicago
Laura Weinrib is Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and Suzanne Young Murray Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.
Laura Weinrib is Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and Suzanne Young Murray Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.

- Introduction, Alison L. LaCroix, Jonathan S. Masur, Martha C. Nussbaum, and Laura Weinrib
- Chapter 1: Law, Literature, and War: A Plenary Panelm with Justice, Stephen G. Breyer, Judge Diane P. Wood, Paul Woodruff, and Martha C. Nussbaum
- PART I: FORMING A NATION THROUGH WAR'S CRUCIBLE
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- Chapter 2: Law and War in the New World: The Last of the Mohicans, The Spy, and The Pioneers, Douglas Baird
- Chapter 3: New Light on the Trial of Billy Budd, Richard H. McAdams and Jacob I. Corré
- Chapter 4: Two Humanitarianisms in Ambrose Bierce's "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," John Fabian Witt
- Chapter 5: Law and its Limits in Albion Tourgée's Bricks without Straw, Kate Masur
- PART II: THE TWO GREAT WARS
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- Chapter 6: Trenches, Cadences, and Faces: Social Connection and Emotional Expression in the Great War, Nancy Sherman
- Chapter 7: Crucified by the War Machine: Britten's War Requiem and the Hope of Postwar Resurrection, Martha C. Nussbaum
- Chapter 8: Undivided Loyalty: The Problem of Allegiance in the Literature of War, Alison L. LaCroix and William A. Birdthistle
- Chapter 9: Law and Legitimacy in A Farewell to Arms, Laura Weinrib
- Chapter 10: Lawmaking, Bilateral Rules, and a Debunking of Catch-22, Saul Levmore
- Chapter 11: Catch-22 and the Law of Large Organizations, Jonathan S. Masur
- PART III: AFTERWARD
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- Chapter 12: Sympathizing with Both Sides: Racism and American Intervention in Vietnam, Paul Woodruff
- Chapter 13: Paul Beatty, the Rhetoric of War, and the Selling Out of Civil Rights, Elizabeth Anker
- Chapter 14: How War Makes (and Unmakes) the Democratic State: Reading The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Exit West In A Populism Age, Aziz Z. Huq
- Chapter 15: Black Radicalism, Autobiography, and Prisoners of War, Tommie Shelby