January 27, 2004

CONTACT:
Matthew Nehmer: (202) 994-6467; nehmer@gwu.edu
Paul Fucito: (202) 994-0616; pfucito@law.gwu.edu

GW LAW PROFESSOR ROBERT COTTROL AWARDED
2003 LANGUM PROJECT FOR HISTORICAL LITERATURE PRIZE

WASHINGTON – GW Law Professor Robert Cottrol is being honored with the 2003 Langum Project for Historical Literature prize for his book, “Brown v. Board of Education: Caste, Culture and the Constitution” (University Press of Kansas, 2003), co-authored by Raymond T. Diamond of Tulane University and Leland B. Ware of the University of Delaware. 

“I’m honored that our book won the Langum Prize,” said Cottrol. “It is a recognition that our book is both a work of serious scholarship and yet accessible to the educated public. These are important qualities for those of us involved in legal scholarship. We write about issues that affect the lives and the rights of all Americans and it is important that we speak beyond the narrow confines of the legal academy.”

The Langum Project was founded by David Langum Sr. out of the conviction that too many historians were writing only for each other’s reading and not for the general public. Eligible books must be accessible to the general, educated public, rooted in sound scholarship and with themes that touch upon matters of general concern to the American public, past or present. 

“I was delighted to hear that Bob's latest book won this award,” said GW Law School Dean Michael K. Young. “It is wonderfully written and I have been recommending it as a must read for some time now.”

Cottrol joined the Law School faculty in 1995 as visiting professor of law and legal history. He had previously taught at Rutgers University and Boston College, and had visited at the University of Virginia. A specialist in the area of American legal history, Cottrol has taught that subject as well as torts and criminal law. His writings on law and legal history have appeared in the Yale Law Journal, Georgetown Law Journal, American Journal of Legal History and the Law and Society Review, among others. He is the author of “The Afro Yankees: Providence’s Black Community in the Antebellum Era,” and editor of “Gun Control and the Constitution: Sources and Explorations on the Second Amendment” (selected as an Alternative Book of the Month selection by the History Book Club) and “From African to Yankee: Narratives of Slavery and Freedom in Antebellum New England.”

Established in 1865, The George Washington University Law School is the oldest law school in the District of Columbia. Accredited by the American Bar Association and a charter member of the Association of American Law Schools, the Law School enrolls approximately 1,750 students each year.

For more news about GW, visit the GW News Center at www.gwnewscenter.org.

- GW -