TY - JOUR
AU - Kempin, Frederick G.
AB - 1961 BOOK REVIEWS 291 JAMES WILLARD HURST: Law and SociaZ Process in United States History. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Law School (1960). Pp. xvii, 361. $5. This volume consists of five lectures delivered at The University of Michigan during November, 1959. The avowed purpose of Professor Hurst was "to suggest themes which offer fruitful results in the development of United States legal his­ tory research." This purpose has been fulfilled, to be sure, but in the context of a larger and more important accomplishment. To Professor Hurst legal history, to be meaningful to layman and lawyer alike, must be more than a studious trac­ ing of the development of legal doctrine. Research in decided eases, structured into historical sequence to show the develop­ ment of doctrine, is only part of the story to be told. Statutes, aligned in series to show their progression from the primitive to the modern, lack significance if the context fails to take into account both their causes and effects. Legal history, from his point of view, is not only what happened, but why it hap­ pened and what it effected. Legal history should be a social history of law. This suggestion, standing 
TI - Law and Social Process in United States History
JO - American Journal of Legal History
DO - 10.2307/844224
DA - 1961-07-01
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/oxford-university-press/law-and-social-process-in-united-states-history-i2NyZf0C2s
SP - 291
EP - 295
VL - 5
IS - 3
DP - DeepDyve
ER -