Dissertation: “The Market’s Virtue: Law and Political Economy in Jeffersonian Virginia”.

Barrett’s work examines the origins of American “liberalism” – the union of democracy and capitalism in the nation’s Founding. He is specifically interested in the ways American law and courts have adapted to/helped impose a new paradigm for property rights, contracts, capitalization, corporations, etc. in response to the ideology of the American Revolution and Federal Constitution.

Currently, Barrett is revising his dissertation manuscript for publication.

» Education

• Doctor of Philosophy in History, University of Michigan, 2006
  Master of Arts in History, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, 1994
  Bachelor or Arts in History, University of Michigan, 1993

» Honors, Awards and Memberships

• 2010
  Mary E. and Richard E. Marburger Faculty Member of the Year Award, Lawrence Technological University
• 2006
  Distinguished Dissertation Award, Department of History, University of Michigan
  Distinguished Dissertation Award, Rackham Graduate School, University of Michigan
• 2001
  Dissertation Writing Grant, Rackham Graduate School, University of Michigan
• 2000
  Dissertation Writing Grant, Department of History, University of Michigan
• 1999
  Mellon Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship
  Keck Foundation Research Fellowship,  Huntington Library, San Marino CA
• 1998
  Mellon Doctoral Candidacy Fellowship
  Research Fellowship, Virginia Historical Society, Richmond VA
  Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award, Rackham Graduate School, University of Michigan

» Publications

• “’Merely a Party Conflict’: The Loyalist Histories of the American Revolution,” M.A. Thesis, University of Virginia, 1994
• “Erving v. Craddock: The Politics of Patronage, Boston, 1760-1762,” paper presented at Cornell University, The Politics of Culture / The Culture of Politics, Nov. 15, 1997.
• “Eli Whitney,”  in Makers of Western Culture, 1800-1914: A Biographical Dictionary of Literary Influences, Derek Blakely and John Powell, eds., (Greenwood Press, 1999), pp.242-3.
• “England in the Reformation,” in Religious Reform in Europe (Marshall & Cavendish, NY, 1999), pp.80-94.
• “The Law of Clientage: Civil Litigation and Debt Culture in Colonial Virginia,” paper presented at the 2001 American Society for Legal History conference, Nov. 8-11, 2001
• “The Market’s Virtue: Law and Political Economy in Jeffersonian Virginia; Fairfax, Loudoun, and Prince William Counties, 1740-1830,” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Michigan, 2006
• “’As tho’ touched by a magic wand, our slaves will become freemen’: The Promise and Failure of Grain Husbandry in Jeffersonian Virginia,” paper presented at the 2007 Great Lakes History Conference, Oct. 26-27, 2007
• “Honor and Race in the Movement for Manhood Suffrage and the 1829 Virginia Constitutional Convention,” paper presented at the American Society for Legal History 2008 Conference, Nov. 13-15, 2008
• “Writing Assessment in the Humanities: Methodology and Culture,” Journal of Assessment 1(Fall 2010), 42-70.
• “The Politics of Production in Jeffersonian Virginia,” paper presented at the 2011 American Labor History Association conference, Oct. 20-21, 2011.

» Courses Taught

• SSC2413: Foundations of the American Experience
• SSC2423: Development of the American Experience
• SSC3143: American Political Tradition
• SSC3153: U.S. History to 1877
• SSC3163: U.S. History from 1877
• SSC3183: American Intellectual Tradition
• SSC3723: Ethics
• SSC4133: Problems in International Politics
• SSC4173: American Constitutional Law

» Other

• Quest Advisor, “Open Mic Night”
• Advisor, Disc Golf Club