Purcell explores the dynamic relationship between legal and social change through the prism of litigation practice and tactics. He examines changing litigation patterns in suits between individuals and national corporations over tort claims for personal injuries and contract claims for insurance benefits.

In this volume, Purcell refines the progressive claim that the federal courts favoured business enterprises during this time, and identifies specific ways and particular time periods in which the federal courts both advantaged and disadvantaged national corporations. He also identifies 1892-1908 as a critical period in the evolution of the 20th century federal judicial system.