The Prophet of Harvard Law

James Bradley Thayer and His Legal Legacy
Erscheinungsjahr 2022
ISBN: 978-0-7006-3359-3
Verlag: University Press of Kansas

Buch, Englisch, 200 Seiten, Hardback, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm

Amid the halls of Harvard Law, a professor of legend, James Bradley Thayer, shaped generations of students from 1874 to 1902. His devoted protÉgÉs included future Supreme Court justices, appellate judges, and law school deans. The legal giants of the Progressive Era—Holmes, Brandeis, and Hand, to name only a few—--came under Thayer’s tutelage in their formative years.He imparted to his pupils a novel jurisprudence, attuned to modern realities, that would become known as legal realism. Thayer’s students learned to confront with candor the fallibility of the bench and the uncertainty of the law. Most of all, he instilled in them an abiding faith that appointed judges must entrust elected lawmakers to remedy their own mistakes if America’s experiment in self-government is to survive.In the eyes of his loyal disciples, Thayer was no mere professor; he was a prophet bequeathing to them sacred truths. His followers eventually came to preside over their own courtrooms and classrooms, and from these privileged perches they remade the law in Thayer’s image. Thanks to their efforts, Thayer’s insights are now commonplace truisms.The Prophet of Harvard Law draws from untouched archival sources to reveal the origins of the legal world we inhabit today. It is a story of ideas and people in equal measure. Long before judges don their robes or scholars their gowns, they are mere law students on the cusp of adulthood. At that pivotal phase, a professor can make a mark that endures forever after. Thayer’s life and legacy testify to the profound role of mentorship in shaping the course of legal history.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtswissenschaft Allgemein Biographien & Autobiographien: Historisch, Politisch, Militärisch

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- List of Figures
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1. Thayer’s Origins
- 2. Thayer’s Scholarship
- 3. Theyer’s ProtÉgÉ: Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
- 4. Thayer’s Students: Louis Brandeis, John Henry Wigmore, Roscoe Pound, and Learned Hand
- 5. Thayer’s Heir: Felix Frankfurter
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Index

Über Autor(innen)

Andrew Porwancher is the Wick Cary Professor in Constitutional Studies at the University of Oklahoma.Jake Mazeitis is a third-year JD candidate at Yale Law School.Taylor Jipp is a master’s student in philosophy of religion at the University of Cambridge.Austin Coffey is an analyst at Kissinger Associates Incorporated.