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A History of American Law, Revised Edition (A Touchstone Book) [Paperback]

Lawrence M. Friedman (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)


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Book Description

January 21, 1986 A Touchstone Book
"A History of American Law" has become a classic for students of law, American history and sociology across the country. In this brilliant and immensely readable book, Lawrence M. Friedman tells the whole fascinating story of American law from its beginnings in the colonies to the present day. By showing how close the life of the law is to the economic and political life of the country, he makes a complex subject understandable and engrossing. "A History of American Law" presents the achievements and failures of the American legal system in the context of America's commercial and working world, family practices and attitudes toward property, slavery, government, crime and justice.

Now Professor Friedman has completely revised and enlarged his landmark work, incorporating a great deal of new material. The book contains newly expanded notes, a bibliography and a bibliographical essay.



Editorial Reviews

Review

Legal Research Journal The whole fabric of American legal literature is superbly integrated in the context of American legal institutions. -- Review

About the Author

Lawrence M. Friedman was born in 1930, educated at the University of Chicago where he earned his law degree, and admitted to the Illinois bar in 1951. He received a graduate degree from the University of Chicago Law School in English legal history. After serving in the United States Army, he practiced with a law firm in Chicago and subsequently entered the teaching profession. He has taught at St. Louis University, the University of Wisconsin, and, since 1968, at Stanford University, where he is now Marion Rice Kirkwood Professor of Law. He is the author of Contract Law in America: A Social and Economic Case Study (1965); Government and Slum Housing: A Century of Frustration (1968); Law and the Behavioral Sciences (coeditor; 1969, 2nd edition, 1977); The Legal System: A Social Science Perspective (1975); Law and Society: An Introduction (1977); American Law and the Constitutional Order: Historical Perspectives (coeditor, 1978); Law and Social Change in Mediterranean Europe and Latin America (coeditor, 1979); The Roots of Justice: Crime and Punishment in Alameda County, California, 1870-1910 (coauthor, 1981); American Law (1984); Your Time Will Come (1985); and Total Justice (1985). He has contributed more than eighty articles to legal and associated journals. Professor Friedman is the past president of the Law and Society Association, and a past Fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences and of the Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the recipient of a number of awards for writing and teaching. He is married and has two daughters.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 784 pages
  • Publisher: Touchstone; 2nd edition (January 21, 1986)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0671528076
  • ISBN-13: 978-0671528072
  • Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #573,461 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

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Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A landmark achievement, April 8, 2000
This review is from: A History of American Law, Revised Edition (A Touchstone Book) (Paperback)
When Lawrence M. Friedman wrote his landmark "A History of American Law," he remarked that American legal history has been a neglected field. The United States, he noted, has no work of legal history comparable to Holdsworth's monumental "History of English Law." Friedman was right about our neglect of American legal history, and his attempt to remedy that neglect by writing his History remains the most authoritative history of American law. Friedman's History is not only authoritative, however. It is written with clarity and grace, and it is accessible to the general reader. Any attempt to gain a full understanding of American law will necessarily be incomplete without a careful reading of this book. It should be required reading for all law students.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Starting Point there Is, July 5, 2002
By A Customer
This review is from: A History of American Law, Revised Edition (A Touchstone Book) (Paperback)
I read this book prior to starting law school. It is the best introduction to the history of American law, and to the law in general. Too many lawyers look at law as a trade, and have no perspective into why or how the law has developed and evolved as it has. This hefty volume goes a long way to remedy that shortcoming. In spite of its academic rigor, it is very readable and clear.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended, June 18, 2007
Dr. Friedman's book is really quite brilliantly written. It is easy to identify his argument in each section, and it is very well supported. The book is structured in a way that makes his findings highly memorable, and he draws from a variety of interesting sources. I took his class at Stanford Law School this past semester, and this was part of the required reading - and for good reason!
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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
The colonial period is, for most lawyers and laymen, the dark ages of American law. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
dynastic trust, record worship, admiralty power, legislative divorce, code pleading, mortgage law, claim clubs, codification movement, labor injunction
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, United States, South Carolina, New Jersey, New England, Legal Hist, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, North Carolina, Wall Street, Joseph Story, John Marshall, Massachusetts Bay, Chancellor Kent, Willard Hurst, Field Code, San Francisco, Charles Warren, Alexander Hamilton, James Kent, New Orleans, Sherman Act, American Bar Association, Dred Scott, David Dudley Field
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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