Random Roundup

• One of the authors reports, here, that the fourth edition of American Legal History, by Kermit L. Hall, Paul Finkelman, and James W. Ely, will ship in mid- to late December--that is, "in time for Spring semester courses."

• Graduate students - Essays in History (EiH), the annual journal of the University of Virginia's Corcoran Department of History, is currently soliciting articles and book reviews for its forty-fifth issue (summer 2011). EiH prides itself on being "a source of high-quality historical work by graduate students and outstanding undergraduates." The deadline for submissions is January 15, 2011.

• Via American Religious History: New York University Press has a new book series on North American Religions and is soliciting manuscripts.

• Over at the Boston Review, Pamela Karlan (Stanford Law School) tells us that "the median lifespan of a national constitution is eight years—roughly the life expectancy of a Great Dane." Why then, she asks, has the U.S. Constitution endured? (hat tip: bookforum)

• The SEC Historical Society announces the opening of its on-line gallery, The Institution of Experience: Self-Regulatory Organizations in the Securities Industry, 1792 - 2010. [While you're browsing, check out the newsreel footage of New York Stock Exchange President Richard Whitney deprecating securities regulation in 1934 and entering Sing-Sing four years later.]

• Lansing, Michigan, attorney Eugene G. Wanger has donated "hundreds of items related to the development of the Michigan Constitution including rare first editions of the state’s four constitutions" to the Michigan State Archives, as reported here.