Customer Reviews

The Yale Biographical Dictionary of American Law (Yale Law Library Series in Legal History and Reference)

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This book is just an amazing and wonderful resource for anyone interested in the history and development of American law. The editor is the author of an outstanding biography of Justice Black, so he knows his stuff when it comes to writing biography. A publication of the "Yale Law Library Series in Legal History and Reference," the editor's expertise is reinforced by that of the series' editorial board, comprised of nine leading practitioners of American legal history and biography. The book, which is beautifully printed on fine paper and oversized pages, contains around 700 short biographies, many with pictures of their subjects. They run in length from a page or so to several pages. Each biography, such as Andrew L. Kaufman's on Justice Cardozo, has several published references attached for further reading. Nearly 600 scholars contributed the bios, many of whom had written extensively on their subject. In his Introduction, the editor explains how the subjects were selected, his decision to include living figures, his election making 2005 the cutoff date, and his commitment to include individuals from groups previously excluded from such scholarly endeavors. A complete list of the contributors and their affiliations is included. I was surprised to see Edwin S. Gaustad, my old colonial history professor from the University of California, Riverside, included. So the range of contributors and their backgrounds is quite diverse and adds to the valuable perspectives articulated in the bios.

The editor opines: "To understand law, one must understand its leading figures." These bios go a long way toward helping us attain that goal. I must warn that these bios are like bon bons or potato chips--"one is never enough." You can turn to any page at random and find several interesting bits of information. The bios also strike the golden mean: long enough to be complete and full of substance; short enough that an inordinate amount of time is not required to read them. Reading one gives you a pretty good initial perspective on the individual under discussion. Good scholarship can be fun to read, as well as informative--this book certainly proves it.

This book is a surprising, remarkable anomaly: a biographical reference work with entries so crisply and vividly written that it can be a compulsive page-turner. A marvelous resource for anyone interested in the wide-ranging influence the men and women who interpret, teach, practice and administer the law have on our society.

I found that book to be an all encompassing legal theoretical journey through American Law and jurisprudence. The wide array and variety of scholarly authors absolutely attributed this manuscript to be at the forefront of law and criminal justice professors preferred book list in their personal libraries. I think that it will be years to come before another legal theory book such as this is published.