The History of Harvard Law School 1817-2020
Bruce Kimball
"Writing the History of Harvard Law School, 1817-2020"
April 6, 2022
4-5 p.m.
Harvard Law School is arguably the most influential professional school in American history not only in terms of graduating judicial, political, and social leaders, but also in establishing the paradigm of graduate professional education that has persisted in all fields through the present day. Nevertheless, the school struggled to cope with the interplay among three factors: its combative culture of academic exclusivity; its tuition dependence that intensified that culture; and the resulting tendency to favor enrolling students and hiring faculty who were white Protestant men. This lecture narrates this history and discusses the formidable problems in writing it, including threats of lawsuits.