Law School: Legal Education in America from the 1850s to the 1980s

The American law school is both powerful and mystifying. It is assumed to be at the center of professional power in the American establishment. Yet the centrality of law in American life has put the law school at the very core of debates about the role of the profession and about the nature of law itself. In this disarmingly frank social history, Robert Stevens shows how the rise of the law school helped the legal profession emerge as a significant force in American life.