Throughout America’s history, our laws have been a reflection of who we are, of what we value, of who has control. They embody our society’s genetic code. In the masterful hands of the subject’s greatest living historian, the story of the evolution of our laws serves to lay bare the deciding struggles over power and justice that have shaped this country from its birth pangs to the present. Law in America is a supreme example of the historian’s art, its brevity a testament to the great elegance and wit of its composition.

From the Hardcover edition.

Friedman (law, Stanford Univ.; A History of American Law) is a prolific writer of works that place the growth and evolution of American law and criminal justice into historical perspective. The current text is a concise and lucid overview of the development of the law as it parallels the track of American social, economic, political, and cultural history. Friedman evinces a theory of concomitance, in which the forward movement of pressures, practices, procedures, and polities in the ostensibly nonlegal categories of American society automatically triggers a corresponding crush of complex creations in their juridical counterparts. In the early 19th century, for instance, the spotlight shone on rapid growth, the expansion of enterprise, and the release of creative economic energy. Thus, a railroad employee named Nicholas Farwell, who suffered a terrible injury on the job in 1842, was forced by the court to turn to family, friends, and the church for solace and recompense. Fortunately, by the mid-20th century, the concept of a social safety net had evolved, along with the modern administrative-welfare system and a strict regulatory framework that probably would have prevented Farwell's injury in the first place. Enjoyable for the lay reader, this book will make a pleasant addition to most public and academic libraries. Philip Y. Blue, New York State Supreme Court Criminal Branch Law Lib., First Judicial Dist., New York