The Winner of the 2024 David J. Langum, Sr. Prize in American Legal History is The Most Powerful Court in the World: A History of the Supreme Court of the United States, by Stuart Banner
Professor Banner has written one of the best one-volume histories of the U.S. Supreme Court. He has a gift for synthesizing formidable quantities of complex issues in a highly engaging narrative that will be accessible to general readers and informative even for specialists. This book aptly places the Court in a social, political, cultural, and economic context, and presents the Justices and their decisions in a vivid and erudite manner. – W.G.R.
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The Finalist of the 2024 David J. Langum, Sr. Prize in American Legal History is Nobody’s Boy and His Pals: The Story of Jack Robbins and the Boys’ Brotherhood Republic, by Hendrik Hartog
This engrossing tale, about Jack Robbins’ nearly forgotten institution for neglected, homeless, and delinquent adolescent boys, has multiple achievements. For legal historians, Hartog demonstrates the value of viewing legal systems, legal culture, and justice capaciously; for the general reader, it provides a panoramic cross-country ride that illustrates the challenges progressive ideas and activism faced in the service of the powerless during the “American Century.” No one will be able to put this page turner down. – D.S.