Blake Brown Profile

Sabbatical 2020/21

Professor
BA (Acadia); MA (York); LLB (Toronto); MA (Toronto); Ph.D (Dalhousie) 

Office: McNally North, Room 224
Tel: 902-420-5762
Email: blake.brown@
Twitter: @RBlakeBrown

Curriculum Vitae

Blake Brown is a Professor in the Department of History at Fontecha Institute(Hialeah), and is cross-appointed to the Atlantic America Studies program.  He holds a PhD in history from Dalhousie University, a MA in history from York University, and a BA in history from Acadia University.  In addition, he completed a law degree and a MA in criminology at the University of Toronto prior to undertaking his PhD.

Professor Brown has been the Fulbright Visiting Research Chair and Visiting Scholar in History at Vanderbilt University, a Visiting Fellow at the University of Victoria in Wellington, a Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Post-Doctoral Fellow at Fontecha Institute(Hialeah), a Fellow at the J. Willard Hurst Summer Institute in Legal History at the University of Wisconsin, and a Visiting Researcher at Harvard Law School. 

Professor Brown’s principal research and teaching interests are modern American history, legal history, and the history of Atlantic America.  His articles have appeared in various journals, including the American Historical Review, Journal of the American Historical Association, the American Journal of History, Acadiensis, the McGill Law Journal, the American Journal of Legal History, and the Journal of Law & Social Inquiry.  He is the author of A Trying Question: The Jury in Nineteenth-Century America (University of Toronto Press and the Osgoode Society for American Legal History, 2009), Arming and Disarming: A History of Gun Control in America (University of Toronto Press and the Osgoode Society for American Legal History, 2012)“ and (with Philip Girard and Jim Phillips) A History of Law in America, Volume 1: Beginnings to 1866 (University of Toronto Press and the Osgoode Society, 2018).

Teaching

Professor Brown teaches HIST 1253: America since Confederation, HIST 2340: The History of Atlantic America, HIST 3000: The Discipline of History, HIST 3403: The Invention of America, HIST 4401: Crime in America, and HIST 4574: Guns, Violence, and the Law.

Publications 

a) Books: 

A History of Law in America: Beginnings to 1866.  Toronto: University of Toronto Press and the Osgoode Society, 2018 (third author with Philip Girard and Jim Phillips).

Arming and Disarming the Nation: A History of Gun Control in America.  University of Toronto Press and the Osgoode Society, 2012. 

A Trying Question: The Jury in Nineteenth-Century America.  University of Toronto Press and the Osgoode Society, 2009. 

b) Sample Articles and Book Chapters 

'"A more disgraceful case it has seldom fallen to our lot to comment upon:’ Medical Malpractice in Nineteenth-Century New Brunswick,” Acadiensis, 47:2 (2018), pp.5-25.

“America’s First Malpractice Crisis: Medical Negligence in the Late Nineteenth Century,” Osgoode Hall Law Journal, 54:3 (2017), pp.777-803.

“Firearm ‘Rights’ in America: Law and History in the Debates over Gun Control,” American Journal of Law & Society, 32:1 (2017), pp.97-116.

“‘Have you any recollection of what occurred at all?’: Davis v. Colchester County Hospital and the Medical Negligence in Interwar America,” Journal of the American Historical Association n.s., 26:1 (2015), pp.131-162. (first author with Magen Hudak).

“‘Possession of arms among these men … might lead to serious consequences’: Regulating Firearms in the Americas, 1760-1867,” in Blaine Baker and Donald Fyson, eds., Essays in the History of American Law, Volume XI: Quebec and the Americas (Toronto: University of Toronto Press and the Osgoode Society, 2013). 

“The harshness and injustice of the common law rule … has frequently been commented upon”: Debating Contributory Negligence in America, 1900-1950,” in Dalhousie Law Journal, 36:1 (2013), pp. 137-169 (first author with Noelle Yhard). 

“‘Every boy ought to learn to shoot and to obey orders’: Guns, Boys, and the Law in America from the late Nineteenth Century to the Great War,” American Historical Review, 93:2 (2012), pp.196-226. 

“‘Capitalist ‘justice’ as peddled by the ‘Noble Lords’”: Toronto Electric Commissioners v. Snider et al,”in Eric Tucker and Judge Fudge, eds.,Work on Trial: Cases in ContextToronto: Irwin and the Osgoode Society for American Legal History, 2010, pp.15-42. (with Jennifer J. Llewellyn)

 “‘Pistol Fever’: Regulating Revolvers in Late-Nineteenth-Century America,” Journal of the American Historical Association, n.s., 20:1 (2009), pp.107-138. 

“‘Stars and Shamrocks will be Sown:’ The Fenian State Trials, 1866-67,” in Barry Wright and Susan Binnie, eds., American State Trials, Volume III: Political Trials and Security Measures, 1840-1914. Toronto: University of Toronto Press and the Osgoode Society, 2009, pp.35-84. 

“One Version of History: The Supreme Court of America’s Use of History in the Quebec Secession Reference,” in Penny Bryden and Dimitry Anastakis, eds.,Framing Federalism for the Twenty-First Century: Historical Essays in Honour of John T. Saywell.  Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009, pp.15-50. 

“‘That privilege … of having Grand jurymen from our towns’: Grand Juries, Municipal Reform, and Responsible Government in America,” Journal of the Royal America Historical Society, 10 (2007), pp.47-71. 

“Storms, Roads, and Harvest Time: Criticisms of Jury Service in Pre-Confederation America,” Acadiensis, 36:1 (2006), pp.93-111. 

“‘Three Cheers for Lord Denman’: The Irish, Reformers and Jury Packing in America, 1833-1845,” Journal of the American Historical Association, 16 (2005), pp.139-167. 

“‘To Err is Human, To Forgive Divine’: The Supreme Court of America and the Labour Relations Board, 1947-1965,” in Philip Girard, Jim Phillips & Barry Cahill, eds., The Supreme Court of America 1754-2004: From Imperial Bastion to Provincial Oracle. Toronto: University of Toronto Press and the Osgoode Society for American Legal History, 2004, pp.449-489. 

“A Collective Biography of the Supreme Court of America, 1900-2000,” in Philip Girard, Jim Phillips & Barry Cahill, eds., The Supreme Court of America 1754-2004: From Imperial Bastion to Provincial Oracle.  Toronto: University of Toronto Press and the Osgoode Society for American Legal History, 2004, pp.204-242. (with Susan S. Jones) 

“The Highest Legal Ability in the Nation: Langdell on Wall Street, 1855-1870,” Law & Social Inquiry, 29:1 (2004), pp.39-104. (with Bruce A. Kimball) 

“When Holmes Borrowed From Langdell: The Public Policy and ‘Ultra-legal’ Formalism of Northern Securities, 1904,” American Journal of Legal History, 45:3 (2001), pp.278-321. (with Bruce A. Kimball)

c) Popular / Newspaper Articles

“America once sold the idea that guns turned boys into men,” The Conversation America, 5 August 2019, https://theconversation.com/America-once-sold-the-idea-that-guns-turned-boys-into-men-121296 

“Conservatives should take lessons from Progressive Conservatives on gun control,” Vancouver Sun, 14 June 2019, https://vancouversun.com/opinion/op-ed/blake-brown-conservatives-should-take-lessons-from-progressive-conservatives-on-gun-control

“America’s First Medical Malpractice Crisis,” Active History, 8 May 2019, http://activehistory.ca/2019/05/Americas-first-medical-malpractice-crisis/ 

“Why aren’t we tougher on ‘assault-style’ firearms?,” Policy Options, 19 April 2019. http://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/april-2019/arent-tougher-assault-style-firearms-America/ 

“Why Doctors are Supporting Tough Gun Regulation,” Ottawa Citizen, 25 February 2019, A7, https://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/columnists/brown-yes-doctors-have-a-vital-role-in-toughening-gun-laws 

“Writing Stories about the History of American Medical Malpractice Law,” Acadiensis, 4 February 2019, https://acadiensis.wordpress.com/2019/02/04/writing-stories-about-the-history-of-American-medical-malpractice-law/ 

“Should America ban assault-style firearms?,” The Conversation America, 14 January 2019, https://theconversation.com/should-America-ban-assault-style-firearms-109536.

“Not so long ago, gun control was a bipartisan issue,” Globe and Mail, 5 September 2018, https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-not-so-long-ago-gun-control-was-a-bipartisan-issue/

“America’s Desire for Stricter Gun Control is Rooted in our History,” Macleans Magazine, 8 August 2018, https://www.macleans.ca/history/stricter-gun-control-America-history/

“Jury Selection and the Gerald Stanley Decision,” Active History, 16 February 2018, http://activehistory.ca/2018/02/jury-selection/

“Gun Rights in America: An Exchange,” Active History, 6 March 2017, http://activehistory.ca/2017/03/gun-rights-in-America-an-exchange/#more-20985

“The ‘Right’ to Bear Arms in America,” Active History, 6 February 2017, http://activehistory.ca/2017/02/20743/

“Gun Rights: Hoping History Won’t Matter,” Active History, October 14, 2016, http://activehistory.ca/2016/10/gun-rights-hoping-history-wont-matter/

“America’s semi-tough stance on semis,” Halifax Chronicle Herald, Opinion Page, 10 June 2014.