Review of New Kalman book on Yale Law

Paul Horwitz at Prawfsblawg recently posted a review of Laura Kalman's recent book,  Yale Law School and the Sixties:  Revolt and Reverberations (UNC Press 2005); he also links to other reviews by Al Brophy and Orin Kerr.   

Kalman, who is a historian at UC Santa Barbara (and attended one year of law school before heading off to graduate school), is one of the leading commentators on legal realism and liberalism within the legal academy.   I recently finished Kalman's first book, Legal Realism at Yale, 1927-1960 (UNC Press 1986), which was fascinating.  As I have noted before, I think the history of legal realism is highly germane to the success (or failure) of empirical legal studies ... I'll elaborate on that topic in a future post.   Moreover, because Yale educates a disproportionate number of law professors, understanding that institution's history provides a useful context to understand the vagaries of modern legal academia.   

Anyway, Paul has given a nice introduction to the second Kalman book on Yale; I hope to read that volume in the coming weeks.

Comments

[Santa Barbara Bankruptcy Attorney]

Just one small dissent on this perceptive and sympathetic take on a very interesting book: the footnotes would have been better yet had Kalman identified the authors of journalistic work by name rather than just article title and publication. The authors of legal work were, of course, named. But journalism was cited in the form of "Article on Yale Law School," The New York Times (or whatever). This reader, at least, was interested in knowing the name of the reporters involved

[laura kalman]

thanks so much for your kind remarks about *legal realism at yale.*
i'm actually a proud alumna of ucla law school and a member of the california bar. indeed i retake the bar exam in my sleep at least once a year. i wake up and my husband looks at the panicked look on my face and says, "you've been taking the california bar again."
lk