Reflections on Professor Chroust's The Rise of the Legal Profession in America

Authors

Donald P. Kommers, Notre Dame Law SchoolFollow

Document Type

Book Review

Publication Date

1966

Publication Information

10 Am. J. Legal Hist. 201 (1966)

Abstract

A review of Anton-Herman Chroust’s 1965 study on lawyers and the status of the legal profession in the United States from early colonial days to 1830.

Though the review praises the wealth of facts and detail in the work it argues that Chroust is more interested in glorifying the early American legal profession rather than analyzing the conditions for its growth. It also contends that Chroust does not organize his material according to a coherent theory or conceptual scheme. The review, in addition, asserts that Chroust focuses too much on the pious and self-righteous rhetoric lawyers at the time, assuming that such rhetoric was widely shared by lawyers rather than exploring what lawyers were really like.

Comments

Reprinted with permission from the American Journal of Legal History.

Recommended Citation

Donald P. Kommers, Reflections on Professor Chroust's The Rise of the Legal Profession in America, 10 Am. J. Legal Hist. 201 (1966).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/law_faculty_scholarship/15