The Lost World of Classical Legal Thought

The Lost World of Classical Legal Thought examines the ideology of elite lawyers and judges from the Gilded Age through the New Deal. Between 1866 and 1937, a coherent outlook shaped the way the American bar understood the sources of law, the role of the courts, and the relationship between law and the larger society. William M. Wiecek explores this outlook - often called "legal orthodoxy" or "classical legal thought" - which assumed that law was apolitical, determinate, objective, and neutral.