Oliver Wendell Holmes: A Willing Servant to an Unknown GodOliver Wendell Holmes was one of the most influential figures in American law. As a Supreme Court Justice, he wrote foundational opinions about such important constitutional issues as freedom of speech and the limits of state regulatory power. As a scholar and Massachusetts High Court judge, he helped to reshape the common law for the modern industrial era. And yet, despite the many accounts of his career, Holmes himself remains an enigma. This book is the first to explore the nineteenth-century New England influences so crucial to the formation of his character. Inspired by Ralph Waldo Emerson's transcendentalism, Holmes belonged to a group of men who formulated a philosophy known as American pragmatism that stood as an alternative to English empiricism and German rationalism. This innovative study places Holmes within the transcendentalist, pragmatist tradition and thereby unlocks his unique identity and contribution to American law. Wells' nuanced analysis will appeal to legal scholars, historians, philosophers, and general readers alike. |
Contents
Memorial Day 1884 | 11 |
War Is Horrible and Dull | 32 |
The Great Chorus of Life and Joy Begins Again | 63 |
For the Puritan Still Lives in New England Thank God | 83 |
Brown University Commencement 1897 | 105 |
The Loneliness of Original Work | 138 |
The Master of Himself | 162 |
The Consummation | 205 |
Other editions - View all
Oliver Wendell Holmes: A Willing Servant to an Unknown God Catharine Pierce Wells Limited preview - 2020 |
Oliver Wendell Holmes: A Willing Servant to an Unknown God Catharine Pierce Wells No preview available - 2020 |
Common terms and phrases
American law answer Antinomians argued argument army aspect of Holmes’s Balls Bluff battle become began believed Bill James Boston Calvinist Chauncey Wright church Civil common law Confederate decide decision described Dixwell doctrine duty Emerson example experience fact faith Fanny father force formal Fredericksburg friends hand Harvard Law School Henry Holmes wrote Holmes’s human idea ideal intellectual issue judge judicial judicial restraint jurisprudence Justice Langdell lawyer legal decision-making letter lives logic Massachusetts meant Metaphysical Club mind moral nature Oliver Wendell Holmes one’s opinion paradox Peirce philosophy plaintiff practical pragmatism principles problem Puritan question Ralph Waldo Emerson realist reason regiment religion religious result rule seems skeptical soldiers speech spirit suggested supra ch Supreme Court theory things thought tion truth Twentieth understand Union Army Unitarian universe vis viva Wendell Holmes Jr Wendell’s William James wounded young