The Transformation of American Law, 1780-1860 (Studies in Legal History) (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Review

He has read widely in many fields...[and] has gathered a rich harvest for any reader...a remarkable achievement. (Yale Law Journal )

It is to be hoped that a wide audience will read it since the issues it raises are indispensable...Horwitz's book is written with a passion. (New York Review of Books )

A thoughtful contribution to the continuing issue of whether and how much we are governed by our judges. (Library Journal )

One of the five most significant books ever published in the field of American legal history.
--William E. Nelson, Yale University

Review

One of the five most significant books ever published in the field of American legal history.
--William E. Nelson, Yale University --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Harvard University Press (April 30, 1979)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0674903714
• ISBN-13: 978-0674903715
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #302,626 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tough nut to crack, yes. But a brilliant work no less., May 14, 2004

By	Li Lin (Union City, CA United States) - See all my reviews

As one reviewer and the publisher had pointed out, the basic premise of the book is how the common law sought to accommodate the economic changes (and actually sought to allocate wealth) during the formative years of this republic. Some commentators have criticized this book as a Marxian dialectic attack of the American law--in particular from the Chicago School quarters. (Chicago Law Review published a very scathing review in the 70s with the aim, I suspect, to discredit Horwitz's argument) But I thought Professor Horwitz did a wonderful job in supporting his argument with citation and documentation. Is he a revisionst? Maybe. But he's more of an E.P. Thompson than a Howard Zinn. In any event, this book presents a very convincing argument despite its tendentiousness.
P.s. For those of you who want to avoid "legal arcana" or those who want a more eclectic treatment of the development of the American law, I would recommend Lawrence Friedman's History of the American Law.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars What Laissez-Faire?, January 22, 2006

By	Robert A. Williams "libertarian" (Oberlin, OH United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Laissez-Faire means live and let live. In this history by Morton Horwitz, we see that along with the rise of corporatism in America was the demise of laissez-faire through the interventionist hand of the state's judicial system:

Mill owners were allowed by government to destroy other people's property by flood;

Canals and railroads were built by seizing land through "eminent domain";

The right of juries to decide judgements for damages in tort cases was taken from them and given to judges;

Contract labor laws - "if a worker signed a contract to work for a year, and left before the year was up, he was not entitled to any wages, even for the time he had worked. But the courts at the same time said that if a building business broke a contract, it was entitled to be paid for whatever had been done up to that point".

Horwitz shows us that laissez-faire was replaced by corporatism, but he doesn't tell us that because the corporatists label their actions behind a false label, Horwitz rails against their false label rather than the actual label of corporatism that accurately describes their actions: "By the middle of the nineteenth century the legal system had been reshaped to the advantage of men of commerce and industry at the expense of farmers, workers, consumers, and other less powerful groups". Included in these other less powerful groups was the laissez-faire entrepeneur, the sole-proprietor and/or partner(s) in business who were responsible for their actions as businessmen unlike the owners of corporations who hid behind hired managers and the law that held the owners exempt. The worst fraud committed on the American people was the deeming of the corporation as an artificial person with constitutional rights.

13 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Tough but interesting., June 18, 1999

By A Customer

I have both a J.D. and a Ph.D. in American history, and this book is tough sledding for me. In short, the subject matter -- the way judges adapted American law to accommodate economic change in the first half of the nineteenth century -- is interesting, but the reader is dragged through lots of legal arcana _en route_. I don't recommend this title for the faint of heart.