Injury

"Personal injury lawsuits and the complex body of legal doctrines that shape them are rarely discussed outside of courts and law schools, except in the narrow polemical framework of campaigns to limit 'frivolous lawsuits.' This is unfortunate, because as Sarah Jain documents in this haunting and accessible study, injury law is not only a back door to regulating the economy, it is also a kind of cultural unconscious; a place guarded by legal fictions, where American society goes to imagine the nature of injury, draw the boundaries of the self, and assign the burdens of our risky ambitions."--Jonathan Simon, University of California, Berkeley"A landmark work in the cultural study of American law and social inequality--creatively conceived, richly researched, and provocatively written."--Elizabeth Povinelli, Columbia University"This is anthropology at its best, intervening in social problems that are hotly debated at various levels in society. It shows how the dynamics of injury law unfold at much deeper discursive and structural levels than cultural critics normally allow."--Michael M. J. Fischer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology