The Transformation of American Law 1870–1960

Abstract Morton Horwitz’s The Transformation of American Law, 1780-1860 won the Bancroft Prize in American History in 1978 and is considered one of the most significant books ever published in American legal history. A paperback edition is widely used in undergraduate American history courses and legal history courses in law schools. Legal scholars and historians eagerly await Horwitz’s sequel for the modern period which he is now submitting for our consideration. Horwitz’s first volume considered the economic conflicts underlying the transformation of American law in the antebellum period. He sought to show how the resolution of conflict through legal rather than political channels led emerging entrepreneurial and commercial groups to win a disproportionate share of wealth and power in American society. His sequel traces the ongoing contest between orthodox and critical movements in American law and their impact on the American legal and political system. Horwitz considers American legal thought and practice in a broad intellectual context, noting the profound impact of positivist and humanist thinking on legal ideology.