Customer Reviews

The People V Harvard Law: How America's Oldest Law School Turned Its Back on Free Speech

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I found this book much too polemical. Thomas also fails to fully address the situation his book is supposed to describe- the Kiwi Camara incident. For example, Thomas makes it sound as if Camara was completely ruined when he actually went on to become a Stanford Law professor. The wikipedia entry on Camara does a better job at explaining what happened.

From personal experience and as a professional, I know that this book is not only an accurate indictment of Harvard Law but also most of America's other law schools. This book should be read by anyone considering a career as a lawyer or any interaction with the legal system.

What leftist social activists have failed to achieve through the legislative and executive branches, they have been very successful at achieving through the selection and indoctrination of future attorneys and judges. Reading Thomas' work gives one full appreciation of the 'why' behind

current debates over abortion, the death penalty, gay marriage, illegal immigration, and other issues dominating the news and clogging our judicial system. The way these issues are handled in law school shape the legal arguments and judicial decisions interpreting our constitutional and statutory rights.

Andrew Peyton Thomas, the district attorney for Maricopa County, Arizona, and a graduate of Harvard Law School, has put together a well-written, intriguing expose on the state of free speech at his alma mater, providing an insider's perspective of the top law professors in the country. Oddly enough, the friction over free speech is not between the political "left" and the "right," because there are practically no conservatives in the administration or on the law faculty, and the majority of students offered admission are also of the leftist persuasion. The battle over free speech is between the "left" and the "far left." (p. 170) Conservatives are rarely mentioned in the book; the major players consist of traditional leftists like Alan Dershowitz versus the new leftists, known as "Crits."

To read the rest of this review, go to http://www.intellectualconservative.com/article4340.html

Thomas wants to convince his readers that those who are twarted from saying hateful derrogatory comments are victims. I think that is just a bit extreme.

This book is shallow at best.