Reviews
Hoffer outlines the main features of English law and legal institutions, describes their transmission to New England and Virginia, and argues for the emergence of 'an American way of law, a style of keeping order and resolving disputes' that was more open and less formalistic than that of England... Legal and social historians will applaud the appearance of this synthesis, and, in a decade's time, will demand a revised edition.
A synthetic essay of considerable grace and scope... An excellent overview of the field.
This book more than succeeds in achieving its goal of helping students understand and appreciate the cultural and intellectual environment of the Anglophone world.
Book Details
Preface to the Second Edition
Preface to the Revised Edition
Preface to the First Edition
Acknowledgments
Chapter One. "That the Said Statutes, Lawes, and Ordinances May Be as Neere as Conveniently May
Preface to the Second Edition
Preface to the Revised Edition
Preface to the First Edition
Acknowledgments
Chapter One. "That the Said Statutes, Lawes, and Ordinances May Be as Neere as Conveniently May, Agreeable to the Forme of the Lawes and Pollicy of England"
Chapter Two. "And to the End that All Laws Prepared by the Governour and Provincial Council Aforesaid, May Yet Have the More Full Concurrence of the Free-Men of the Province"
Chapter Three. "If I Am Become Their Son, They Must Act the Part of a Father"
Chapter Four. "Take All the Care in Your Power to Guard against Any Further Wicked Designs"
Chapter Five. "These Dirty and Ridiculous Litigations Have Been Multiplied in This Town, Till the Very Earth Groans and the Stones Cry Out"
Chapter Six. "Just so th' Unletter'd Blockheads of the Robe; (Than Whom no Greater Monsters on the Globe); Their Wire-Drawn, Incoherent, Jargon Spin, Or Lug a Point by Head and Shoulders In"
Chapter Seven. "On What Principles, Then, on What Motives of Action, Can We Depend for the Security of our Liberties, of our Properties... of Life Itself?"
Conclusion
Notes
A Bibliographic Essay
Index