Patterns of American Legal Thought

by G. Edward White

Patterns Of American Legal Thought is a renaissance work in American legal history and jurisprudence. Professor White contributes significantly to the tradition of scholarship on the origins of American legal thought, but also departs from it, broadening the vision inaugurated by Willard Hurst.

White suggests that American legal thought has not been derived only from the influence of markets and legislatures (e.g., power distribution, resource allocation, and policy-making), but also from social and intellectual influences not intimately linked to economic or political power.

The book takes the form of astute essays on such subjects as the process, method and debates of legal history; the truth about Holmes and Brandeis; legal realism and its critics; the origins of American tort law and theory; appellate opinions as research sources; Brown v. Board of Education and the roles of Earl Warren and of public opinion; and the development of gay rights and relationship privacy in U.S. constitutional law.

In many ways, this book is actually a history of "legal history" itself, as it critically examines not only important changes in law and legal thought in the U.S. but also the discipline of historicizing law over the years.

409 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

G. Edward White is the David and Mary Harrison Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Virginia. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1983.