Legal History

September 2, 2026

Greater Hartford’s West Indian Diaspora (10th Anniversary Encore Release)

Author Steve Thornton asks “Who really makes history”? In his new book, Radical Connecticut: People’s History in the Constitution State, co-authored by Andy Piascik, guest Steve Thornton tells the stories of everyday people and well-known figures whose work has often been obscured, denigrated, or dismissed. There are narratives of movements, strikes, popular organizations and people in Connecticut who changed the state and the country for the better.
August 14, 2026

Awakenings and Revolutions: The Harts, Saybrook, and the New Nation

Author Steve Thornton asks “Who really makes history”? In his new book, Radical Connecticut: People’s History in the Constitution State, co-authored by Andy Piascik, guest Steve Thornton tells the stories of everyday people and well-known figures whose work has often been obscured, denigrated, or dismissed. There are narratives of movements, strikes, popular organizations and people in Connecticut who changed the state and the country for the better.
July 3, 2026

Rough Justice for Connecticut State Hero Nathan Hale (10th Anniversary Encore Release)

Author Steve Thornton asks “Who really makes history”? In his new book, Radical Connecticut: People’s History in the Constitution State, co-authored by Andy Piascik, guest Steve Thornton tells the stories of everyday people and well-known figures whose work has often been obscured, denigrated, or dismissed. There are narratives of movements, strikes, popular organizations and people in Connecticut who changed the state and the country for the better.
June 15, 2026

Guides for Black Travelers: New London’s Green Book Sites

Author Steve Thornton asks “Who really makes history”? In his new book, Radical Connecticut: People’s History in the Constitution State, co-authored by Andy Piascik, guest Steve Thornton tells the stories of everyday people and well-known figures whose work has often been obscured, denigrated, or dismissed. There are narratives of movements, strikes, popular organizations and people in Connecticut who changed the state and the country for the better.
June 1, 2026

John Hooker: Hartford’s Abolitionist Lawyer

Author Steve Thornton asks “Who really makes history”? In his new book, Radical Connecticut: People’s History in the Constitution State, co-authored by Andy Piascik, guest Steve Thornton tells the stories of everyday people and well-known figures whose work has often been obscured, denigrated, or dismissed. There are narratives of movements, strikes, popular organizations and people in Connecticut who changed the state and the country for the better.
May 15, 2026

Pursuing Happiness: New Horizons Village

Author Steve Thornton asks “Who really makes history”? In his new book, Radical Connecticut: People’s History in the Constitution State, co-authored by Andy Piascik, guest Steve Thornton tells the stories of everyday people and well-known figures whose work has often been obscured, denigrated, or dismissed. There are narratives of movements, strikes, popular organizations and people in Connecticut who changed the state and the country for the better.
March 15, 2026

Abby (and Julia) Smith and Their Cows

Author Steve Thornton asks “Who really makes history”? In his new book, Radical Connecticut: People’s History in the Constitution State, co-authored by Andy Piascik, guest Steve Thornton tells the stories of everyday people and well-known figures whose work has often been obscured, denigrated, or dismissed. There are narratives of movements, strikes, popular organizations and people in Connecticut who changed the state and the country for the better.
February 16, 2026

On Trial: Alfred Marder and Catherine Roraback – A Communist’s Arrest in 1950’s McCarthy-era New Haven (10th Anniversary Encore Release)

Author Steve Thornton asks “Who really makes history”? In his new book, Radical Connecticut: People’s History in the Constitution State, co-authored by Andy Piascik, guest Steve Thornton tells the stories of everyday people and well-known figures whose work has often been obscured, denigrated, or dismissed. There are narratives of movements, strikes, popular organizations and people in Connecticut who changed the state and the country for the better.
December 1, 2025

The “Miller Excitement”: A Town at War with Itself

By Martin Kivell On a freezing January night in 1843, Stamford citizens witnessed a brazen kidnapping. Heiress Martha Blackwell Miller, 25, was dragged from her room at the Stage House hotel by her husband, Charles […]
May 15, 2025

Mary Hall and the Good Will Club

Author Steve Thornton asks “Who really makes history”? In his new book, Radical Connecticut: People’s History in the Constitution State, co-authored by Andy Piascik, guest Steve Thornton tells the stories of everyday people and well-known figures whose work has often been obscured, denigrated, or dismissed. There are narratives of movements, strikes, popular organizations and people in Connecticut who changed the state and the country for the better.
March 1, 2025

Artistry, Charm, and Whimsy: Connecticut’s Carousel Museum

Author Steve Thornton asks “Who really makes history”? In his new book, Radical Connecticut: People’s History in the Constitution State, co-authored by Andy Piascik, guest Steve Thornton tells the stories of everyday people and well-known figures whose work has often been obscured, denigrated, or dismissed. There are narratives of movements, strikes, popular organizations and people in Connecticut who changed the state and the country for the better.
February 15, 2025

Amistad Retold: New Haven and the 1839 Amistad Revolt

Author Steve Thornton asks “Who really makes history”? In his new book, Radical Connecticut: People’s History in the Constitution State, co-authored by Andy Piascik, guest Steve Thornton tells the stories of everyday people and well-known figures whose work has often been obscured, denigrated, or dismissed. There are narratives of movements, strikes, popular organizations and people in Connecticut who changed the state and the country for the better.
March 1, 2024

From an Underground Prison to the Boundless Sea: Using Digital Tools to Trace the Lives of New-Gate

By Glenn W. Falk and Ava C. Caudle On August 20, 1798, a classified ad appeared in The Connecticut Courant: “Run away from the subscriber on the night after the 17th of Aug. inst[ant] a […]
September 1, 2023

The Cradle and Shrine of American Law

By Linda Hocking The first independent school of law in America was founded in Litchfield, Connecticut, by Long Island native Tapping Reeve. Having completed his education at Princeton in 1774, Reeve went to Hartford to […]
February 10, 2017

The Mysterious Case of Gershom Marx

by Johnna Kaplan FALL 2016   In 2015, when Connecticut abolished the death penalty—embedded in its laws since the 17th century—University of Connecticut history professor Lawrence Goodheart’s The Solemn Sentence of Death: Capital Punishment in […]
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