Description

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Honorable Mention, 2017 Scribes Book Award, The American Society of Legal Writers

At the dawn of the twentieth century, the United States was reeling from the effects of rapid urbanization and industrialization. Time-honored verities proved obsolete, and intellectuals in all fields sought ways to make sense of an increasingly unfamiliar reality. The legal system in particular began to buckle under the weight of its anachronism. In the midst of this crisis, John Henry Wigmore, dean of Northwestern University School of Law, single-handedly modernized the jury trial with his 1904–1905 Treatise on evidence, an encyclopedic work that dominated the conduct of trials. In so doing, he inspired generations of progressive jurists—among them Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Benjamin Cardozo, and Felix Frankfurter—to reshape American law to meet the demands of a new era. Yet Wigmore’s role as a prophet of modernity has slipped into obscurity. This book provides a radical reappraisal of his place in the birth of modern legal thought.

About the Author

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Andrew Porwancher is a Professor of Legal History at Arizona State University. His scholarship on Wigmore helped form the basis of the exhibit “Research Revealed” at the Harvard Law Library. He is the author of three other books, including The Jewish World of Alexander Hamilton (Princeton University Press, 2021), winner of the Journal of the American Revolution Book-of-the-Year Award. In 2023, his first book—The Devil Himself: A Tale of Honor, Insanity, and the Birth of Modern America (Oxford University Press, 2016)—was adapted for the stage at Dublin’s historic Smock Alley Theatre. Porwancher’s writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post. He previously served as the May Fellow at Harvard, the Garwood Fellow at Princeton, and the Horne Fellow at Oxford.  
 

Praise For…

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“At the dawn of the twentieth century, the United States was reeling from the effects of rapid urbanization and industrialization, and the legal system in particular began to buckle under the weight of its anachronism. Porwancher argues that in the midst of this crisis, John Henry Wigmore single-handedly modernized the jury trial with his treatise on evidence, an encyclopedic work that dominated the conduct of trials and inspired generations of jurists—among them Holmes, Cardozo, and Frankfurter—to reshape American law.”—Law and Social Inquiry

“[The book] will become the standard work on the subject, and more than that, will contribute to emerging clarity in the field of early twentieth-century legal ideas more broadly.”—Noah Feldman, Professor of Law, Harvard Law School, author of Cool War: The Future of Global Competition

“It evidences a close reading of Wigmore’s work and extensive work in the archives at Harvard and Northwestern, bringing to light a good deal of new material on the connections among important figures in ‘legal modernism.’”—Robert P. Burns, Professor of Law, Northwestern University School of Law, author of A Theory of the Trial

“A helpful attribute of Porwancher’s book is its excellent organization and the author’s dependable contextualization of his various subjects. With these features, the book is highly accessible to all readers. The book is also flawlessly edited and produced.”—Pennsylvania Bar Association

"Little of significance has been written about Wigmore in 30 years. Porwancher's study is an important corrective that historians of American legal thought must account for. In the best fashion of revisionists, Porwancher has complicated the study of legal pragmatism by challenging historians to think less reflexively."—Law and History Review