Pulitzer Prize History Winner
The Dred Scott Case: Its Significance in American Law and Politics
by Don E. Fehrenbacher
Summary
Fehrenbacher examines the 1857 Supreme Court decision that denied citizenship to Black Americans and inflamed the conflict over slavery in the territories. He reconstructs the legal reasoning, the personalities on the Taney court, and the explosive political fallout that followed the ruling. The study remains the authoritative account of one of the most consequential and discredited decisions in American legal history.
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Historical Context & Significance
Fehrenbacher, who had completed David M. Potter's prizewinning manuscript two years earlier, won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1979 for this study of the Taney court.