{"product_id":"the-corporate-forms-of-antebellum-peter-jaros-9780198996514","title":"The Corporate Forms of Antebellum Us Literature","description":"Through close examination of legal and literary texts, \u003cem\u003eThe Corporate Forms of Antebellum US Literature \u003c\/em\u003etells the story of the corporation in antebellum US law, literature, and culture. It unfolds a rich and varied corporate imaginary that both illuminates the prehistory of today's corporations and captures forgotten and unrealized conceptions of personhood, politics, and collectivity. Centered on an era during which both person and corporation were contested terms, this book shows how a seemingly instrumental legal category spurred reflection on human identity, mortality and immortality, slavery and freedom, and the possibilities of social and political belonging. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn the wake of \u003cem\u003eTrustees of Dartmouth College v. Woodward\u003c\/em\u003e (1819), the corporation was recognized as a flexible and powerful form for enterprises ranging from banks to mutual aid societies to utopian communities, even as its status as a legal person spurred reflection on natural and artificial personhood. Antebellum American writers took on corporate personhood and reframed it as literary personification; they explored and reimagined the tropes at the heart of the legal doctrine of the corporation, including artificiality, immortality, multiplicity, and succession; and they experimented with social and literary forms derived from the corporation. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBy examining the ways writers theorized, figured, and deployed the corporate form within and beyond the law, this study both elucidates dominant conceptions of the corporation and reveals a multitude of paths not taken. It wagers that attending to the corporation as a form--or collection of forms--at the intersection of antebellum US law, literature, and culture can both inform our contemporary entanglements with the corporation and bring an unfamiliar perspective to recent debates about form.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Peter Jaros\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0198996519\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780198996514\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Oxford University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 08\/28\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 272\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover","brand":"Peter Jaros","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":48217963430143,"sku":"9780198996514","price":120.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_4b002f6d-815b-44cf-8c2e-283e5c53e945.jpg?v=1772000556","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-corporate-forms-of-antebellum-peter-jaros-9780198996514","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}