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Reassessing Hurst: A Transatlantic Perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 October 2011

Extract

Today, the history of law and society has become an exciting growth industry. But just a couple of decades ago this possibility would have seemed implausible. Indeed, when Willard Hurst became professor of law in Madison in 1937, modern legal history was, to put it kindly, dead. Reviving this moribund discipline required more than imagination and an acute awareness of the point and nature of law. Sleeping Beauty had to be woken with a kiss, and Hurst surely brought a serious, tenacious passion to his vocation. Through exhortation, inspiration, and sheer determination, he attempted to resuscitate a huge domain.

Type
Commentaries
Copyright
Copyright © the American Society for Legal History, Inc. 2000

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References

1. On Frankfurter's Anglophilia, see, for example, Cosgrove, R. A., Our Lady the Common Law (New York: New York University Press, 1987), 219.Google Scholar

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12. I am grateful to John Baker for providing this information.

13. The author's discussion with Hurst on 23 May 1992.

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