Hurst, James Willard. The Growth of American Law: The Law Makers. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1950. xiii, 502 pp. Reprinted 2007 by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. Paperback. New. * The first study published after World War II and a pioneering work that devoted attention to several issues neglected in earlier histories, it surveys American law and its agencies and legislative bodies from roughly 1740-1940. Hurst emphasizes the role played by legislatures, the courts, the constitution-making process, the bar and the executive. In his History of American Law, Friedman recognized this book's value, noting that it taught "scholars from other disciplines...to look at the law with a fresh and sometimes illuminating eye" (595). This is an important work that has been highly regarded for its social perspective. ...a pioneering attempt to evaluate in broad terms the contributions to the development of American law made by its five chief formative agencies, the legislatures, the courts, the constitution-making process, the bar and the executive. --William F. Fracher, Mo. L. Rev. 15:332-333 ...[it taught] scholars from other disciplines...to look at the law with a fresh and sometimes illuminating eye. --Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law ...a pioneer work in this badly neglected field ...combine(s) scholarship, insight, and narrative and analytical skill in a striking manner. --Henry Steele Commager James Willard Hurst [1910-1997] was an important and influential legal scholar, the father of American legal history. He developed a new approach to legal history in moving it beyond the subject of the common law of England and its influence on the American revolution or a history of the American court system. Instead Hurst created a type of American legal history that encompassed its social and economic implications and the role of individual law makers. Born in Rockford, Illinois, he attended Williams College and the Harvard Law School, graduating in 1935. He serves as a research assistant for his law professor, Felix Frankfurter, and later clerked for Justice Louis Brandeis on the Supreme Court of the United States. He taught law at the University of Wisconsin Law School, Madison (1937 80, emeritus 1981). His books on American legal history include Law and the Conditions of Freedom in the 19th Century United States (1956) and Law and Economic Growth: The Legal History of the Lumber Industry in Wisconsin 1836-1915 (1964). Used Book in Good Condition