ISI Faculty Resource Center

Patrick Peel

As an undergraduate, I studied philosophy and politics. My undergraduate philosophy thesis was on the influence of Nietzsche on Martin Heidegger's philosophy, while my undergraduate politics thesis was on Richard Rorty and "postmodern liberalism."  I went to Johns Hopkins to study political theory - and did study with William Connelly, Richard Flathman, and Kristie McClure - but became quickly taken with the "history of political and moral thought."  Under the influence of J.B. Schneewind, I was led to complete a Masters degree in Philosophy -  studying with him, Susan Wolf, and Michael Williams - while completing my Ph.D. in political science.  The influence of Schneewind, John Pocock, Anthony Padgen, and Dorothy Ross - along with a seminar I took with Gordon Wood -  led me to want to combine the history of political and moral thought with the development of American institutions.  Thus, ultimately, I wrote a dissertation in the field of American political development entitled, "Building Judicial Capacity in the Early American State: Legal Populism, County Courts, and Credit, 1645-1860."  That dissertation won the Edward S. Corwin Award from the American Political Association for the best dissertation in the field of public law.

 Based on the dissertation, I am currently drafting a book length manuscript that tells the story of how local legal institutions built a "rule of law" culture in early American society.  Most narratives of the development of the rule of law in America begin with a "top-down" story, rather than a "bottom-up story.  These top-down stories - focusing as they do on the Supreme Court, federal courts, and elite legal opinion - ignore the attitudes of the middling sort people and the legal institutions they used and valued.  

Most generally, I am interested in the interaction of institutions with the history of political and moral thought.