Overview

In recent decades, Oliver Wendell Holmes has been praised as ""the only great American legal thinker"" and ""the most illustrious figure in the history of American law."" But in Albert Alschuler's critique of both Justice Holmes and contemporary legal scholarship, a darker portrait is painted—that of a man who, among other things, espoused Social Darwinism, favored eugenics, and, as he himself acknowledged, came ""devilish near to believing that might makes right.""

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9780226015217

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"""An exuberantly and entertainingly polemical attack on the character, scholarship and philosophy of America's most revered judicial saint."" - Jeffrey Rosen, New York Times Book Review ""[This] slender volume by a distinguished University of Chicago law professor should be required reading."" - Tom Roeser, Chicago Sun-Times; ""In a lively and entertaining attack, Albert Alschuler strips layer after layer from the traditional image of Holmes to reveal not a wise and compassionate liberal saint, but a heartless social Darwinist who believed in nothing but power. [H]is dissection of Holmes's legal scholarship is devastating."" - The Economist"

An exuberantly and entertainingly polemical attack on the character, scholarship and philosophy of America's most revered judicial saint. - Jeffrey Rosen, New York Times Book Review [This] slender volume by a distinguished University of Chicago law professor should be required reading. - Tom Roeser, Chicago Sun-Times; In a lively and entertaining attack, Albert Alschuler strips layer after layer from the traditional image of Holmes to reveal not a wise and compassionate liberal saint, but a heartless social Darwinist who believed in nothing but power. [H]is dissection of Holmes's legal scholarship is devastating. - The Economist

Author Information

Albert W. Alschuler is the Wilson-Dickinson Professor in the University of Chicago Law School. His study of Sir William Blackstone received the 1997 Sutherland Prize of the American Society of Legal Historians.

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