Overview

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.

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9780700633593

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Reviews

The Prophet of Harvard Law is a much-needed addition to the literature on legal realism. The authors detail the ways in which our assumptions that law does and should respond to social realities relies in great part on Thayer and the legal giants--Oliver Wendell Holmes, Louis Dembitz Brandeis, Roscoe Pound, Learned Hand--who became his acolytes. Deeply researched, this is the first volume to limn the influence of Thayer and his followers, helping fill what has been a gap in our understanding of the evolution of the law. --Philippa Strum, author of On Account of Sex: Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the Making of Gender Equality Law Constitutional historians have long recognized the importance of James Bradley Thayer as both a progenitor of legal realism and an articulate advocate of judicial restraint. In this well-written and well-researched study, Andrew Porwancher and his students give us not only an acute analysis of Thayer's jurisprudence, but also of his influence on Holmes, Brandeis, Pound, and others. This book should be required reading not only for students but for judges as well. --Melvin Urofsky, professor emeritus of history, Virginia Commonwealth University

The Prophet of Harvard Law is a much-needed addition to the literature on legal realism. The authors detail the ways in which our assumptions that law does and should respond to social realities relies in great part on Thayer and the legal giants--Oliver Wendell Holmes, Louis Dembitz Brandeis, Roscoe Pound, Learned Hand--who became his acolytes. Deeply researched, this is the first volume to limn the influence of Thayer and his followers, helping fill what has been a gap in our understanding of the evolution of the law.--Philippa Strum, author of On Account of Sex: Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the Making of Gender Equality Law Constitutional historians have long recognized the importance of James Bradley Thayer as both a progenitor of legal realism and an articulate advocate of judicial restraint. In this well-written and well-researched study, Andrew Porwancher and his students give us not only an acute analysis of Thayer's jurisprudence, but also of his influence on Holmes, Brandeis, Pound, and others. This book should be required reading not only for students but for judges as well.--Melvin Urofsky, professor emeritus of history, Virginia Commonwealth University

Author Information

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.

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