American Law in the 20th Century.(Book Review)

Historian, The, March, 2004 by Goodman, Nan

American Law in the 20th Century. By Lawrence M. Friedman. (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2002. Pp. xii, 722. $35.00.)

In the final stretch of this epic tome, one of many celebrated legal histories by this author, Lawrence M. Friedman admits that the topic he has chosen--law in the twentieth century--is "bulky and unwieldy" (505). But after reading this far, most readers will agree that Friedman proves more than equal to the task of making a bulky subject manageable. Though it has more than six hundred pages of text, Friedman's book is a remarkably quick read, and the twentieth century unfolds, seemingly, in the blink of an eye. His major themes--the centralization of government over time, the impact of technology on law, and the ability of law...

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