Morton J. Horwitz

When the first volume of Morton Horwitz's monumental history of American law appeared in 1977, it was universally acclaimed as one of the most significant works ever published in American legal history. The New Republic called it an "extremely valuable book." Library Journal praised it as"brilliant" and "convincing." And Eric Foner, in The New York Review of Books , wrote that "the issues it raises are indispensable for understanding nineteenth-century America." It won the coveted Bancroft Prize in American History and has since become the standard source on American law for theperiod between 1780 and 1860. Now, Horwitz presents The Transformation of American Law, 1870 to 1960 , the long-awaited sequel that brings his sweeping history to completion.In his pathbreaking first volume, Horwitz showed how economic conflicts helped transform law in antebellum America. Here, Horwitz picks up where he left off, tracing the struggle in American law between the entrenched legal orthodoxy and the Progressive movement, which arose in response toever-increasing social and economic inequality. Horwitz introduces us to the people and events that fueled this contest between the Old Order and the New. We sit in on Lochner v. New York in 1905--where the new thinkers sought to undermine orthodox claims for the autonomy of law--and watch asProgressive thought first crystallized. We meet Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. and recognize the influence of his incisive ideas on the transformation of law in America. We witness the culmination of the Progressive challenge to orthodoxy with the emergence of Legal Realism in the 1920s and '30s, amovement closely allied with other intellectual trends of the day. And as postwar events unfold--the rise of totalitarianism abroad, the McCarthyism rampant in our own country, the astonishingly hostile academic reaction to Brown v. Board of Education --we come to understand that, rather thanself-destructing as some historians have asserted, the Progressive movement was alive and well and forming the roots of the legal debates that still confront us today.The Progressive legacy that this volume brings to life is an enduring one, one which continues to speak to us eloquently across nearly a century of American life. In telling its story, Horwitz strikes a balance between a traditional interpretation of history on the one hand, and an approachinformed by the latest historical theory on the other. Indeed, Horwitz's rich view of American history--as seen from a variety of perspectives--is undertaken in the same spirit as the Progressive attacks on an orthodoxy that believed law an objective, neutral entity.The Transformation of American Law is a book certain to revise past thinking on the origins and evolution of law in our country. For anyone hoping to understand the structure of American law--or of America itself--this volume is indispensable.

In a remarkable book based on prodigious research, Morton J. Horwitz offers a sweeping overview of the emergence of a national (and modern) legal system from English and colonial antecedents. He treats the evolution of the common law as intellectual history and also demonstrates how the shifting views of private law became a dynamic element in the economic growth of the United States.Horwitz's subtle and sophisticated explanation of societal change begins with the common law, which was intended to provide justice for all. The great breakpoint came after 1790 when the law was slowly transformed to favor economic growth and development. The courts spurred economic competition instead of circumscribing it. This new instrumental law flourished as the legal profession and the mercantile elite forged a mutually beneficial alliance to gain wealth and power.The evolving law of the early republic interacted with political philosophy, Horwitz shows. The doctrine of laissez-faire, long considered the cloak for competition, is here seen as a shield for the newly rich. By the 1840s the overarching reach of the doctrine prevented further distribution of wealth and protected entrenched classes by disallowing the courts very much power to intervene in economic life.This searching interpretation, which connects law and the courts to the real world, will engage historians in a new debate. For to view the law as an engine of vast economic transformation is to challenge in a stunning way previous interpretations of the eras of revolution and reform.

The Hill and Wang Critical Issues Series: concise, affordable works on pivotal topics in American history, society, and politics.The men who made up the Supreme Court when Earl Warren was Chief Justice (1953-69) changed America forever, and their decisions are still affecting constitutional law today. This overview of the Warren Court focuses on its landmark cases and enduring legacy.

A timely history of the profound impact of Earl Warren's Supreme Court on many areas of modern American government and societyFrom 1953 to 1969, Earl Warren served as chief justice of the US Supreme Court. During that time, the Warren Court made a number of historically important decisions involving anti-miscegenation laws (Loving v. Virginia), the right to privacy (Griswold v. Connecticut), and, perhaps most important, racial segregation (Brown v. Board of Education).In The Warren Court and Democratic Constitution, Horwitz highlights the radical shift in traditional jurisprudential ideas that occurred during Earl Warren's tenure as chief justice. He details how Brown v. Board of Education exerted a powerful influence on the agenda of the Warren Court and reshaped almost every subject area in constitutional law. With this decision, the concept of a "living Constitution," the idea that the Constitution ought to develop to accommodate social change, emerged and was institutionalized by the Court. Brown inspired a more active reading of the Equal Protection Clause, and the Court soon applied this expanded notion of "equal protection" to legislative apportionment, recognized the rights of supposed "outsiders" (e.g., undocumented peoples and children born out of wedlock), and initiated a new era of legal attacks on gender discrimination.The Warren Court's jurisprudence is radically opposed to the current Supreme Court's emphasis on originalism, the approach of interpreting the Constitution according to its meaning at the time of writing. Readers interested in an alternative to originalism, as well as Supreme Court history and civil rights, will gain a deeper understanding of the profound impact of the Warren Court on many areas of modern American government and society.

Il volume ritrae un secolo di storia del diritto americano, ponendo l'accento sulla grande frattura fra Ottocento e Novecento, che percorre il pensiero giuridico statunitense. La "trasformazione" sta nel passaggio dalla pretesa di neutralità e apoliticità della scienza giuridica alla presa d'atto della sua natura intrinsecamente politica. Il richiamo a principi universalistici è stato per molto tempo l'antidoto alle paure connesse alle scelte sociali. Ma già alla fine del XIX secolo il giudice Holmes elaborò una concezione del diritto come spazio per una consapevole creazione di valori e politiche sociali. Un'indagine che evidenzia la tensione fra neutralità ed effettività del diritto, tra compiti del legislatore e ruolo della giurisprudenza.