Contents -- Introduction -- 1. Origins of a Social Litigation System -- 2. The Social Structure of Party Inequality and the Informal Legal Process -- 3. The Federal Common Law -- 4. The Battle for Forum Control, I: The Jurisdictional Amount and the Limits of Corporate Liability -- 5. The Battle for Forum Control, II: Joinder and the Limits of the System -- 6. Removal and the Problems of Local Prejudice: Three Perspectives on the System -- 7. Contraction and Evolution: The System After 1910 -- 8. The Rise of Interstate Forum Shopping -- 9. Tactical Escalation in Insurance Litigation -- 10. Disintegration -- 11. Retrospective: History, Procedure, and the Social Role of the Federal Courts -- Notes -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y.