Brief Description
This well-known 'underground' classic critique of legal education is available for the first time in book form. This edition contains commentary by leading legal educations.
Learn More about the Book
In 1983 Harvard law professor Duncan Kennedy self-published a biting critique of the law school system called Legal Education and the Reproduction of Hierarchy. This controversial booklet was reviewed in several major law journals unprecedented for a self-published work and influenced a generation of law students and teachers.
In this well-known critique, Duncan Kennedy argues that legal education reinforces class, race, and gender inequality in our society. However, Kennedy proposes a radical egalitarian alternative vision of what legal education should become, and a strategy, starting from the anarchist idea of workplace organizing, for struggle in that direction. Legal Education and the Reproduction of Hierarchy is comprehensive, covering everything about law school from the first day to moot court to job placement to life after law school. Kennedy's book remains one of the most cited works on American legal education.
The visually striking original text is reprinted here, making it available to a new generation. The text is buttressed by commentaries by five prominent legal scholars who consider its meaning for today, as well as by an introduction and afterword by the author that describes the context in which Kennedy wrote the book, including a brief history of critical legal studies.
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About the Author
Duncan Kennedy is Carter Professor of General Jurisprudence at Harvard University School of Law. He is the author of a number of books and articles, including A Critique of Adjudication [fin de siecle] and Sexy Dressing, Etc.: Essays on the Power and Politics of Cultural Identity.
Review Quotes
1. aAn important founding text in the history of critical approaches to law taken by scholars located in law schools.a - "The Law and Politics Book Review"
2. aKennedy's book remains one of the defining blows of critical legal studies and an enduring challenge to the entire structure of legal education. It remains as vital, incisive and daring as when it first appeared.a - Scott Turow, author of "One L: The Turbulent True Story of a First Year at Harvard Law School."
3. "Duncan Kennedy's little red book has become a classic. But now with its republication twenty years later, Kennedy's 'polemic against the system' takes us beyond its origins as a field guide to legal education. Amplified by the voices of other distinguished scholars, this stunning collection of essays forces us to consider the ways in which hierarchies and their resulting social alienation disfigure contemporary society, not just our law schools.a - Lani Guinier, Harvard University
4. aDuncan Kennedy's critique of legal education now gets the wide distribution it deserves. Kennedy's insightful skewering of legal education, supplemented by his own reflections on the work and views of other legal educators, will provide prospective law students with a flavor of what they are in for -- and will remind lawyers of what they went through. Kennedy's message is as important today as it was two decades ago when he first penned this work.a - Mark Tushnet, Georgetown University
5. (
"Duncan Kennedy's little red book has become a classic. But now with its republication twenty years later, Kennedy's 'polemic against the system'takes us beyond its origins as a field guide to legal education. Amplified by the voices of other distinguished scholars, this stunning collection of essays forces us to consider the ways in which hierarchies and their resulting social alienation disfigure contemporary society, not just our law schools."
)-(Lani Guinier), (Harvard University)
6. (
"Kennedy's book remains one of the defining blows of critical legal studies and an enduring challenge to the entire structure of legal education. It remains as vital, incisive and daring as when it first appeared."
)-(Scott Turow), (author of "One L: The Turbulent True Story of a First Year at Harvard Law School.")
7. (
"An important founding text in the history of critical approaches to law taken by scholars located in law schools."
)-("The Law and Politics Book Review"), ()
8. (
"Duncan Kennedy's critique of legal education now gets the wide distribution it deserves. Kennedy's insightful skewering of legal education, supplemented by his own reflections on the work and views of other legal educators, will provide prospective law students with a flavor of what they are in for -- and will remind lawyers of what they went through. Kennedy's message is as important today as it was two decades ago when he first penned this work."
)-(Mark Tushnet), (Georgetown University)
9.
"An important founding text in the history of critical approaches to law taken by scholars located in law schools."
-"The Law and Politics Book Review",
10.
"Duncan Kennedy's critique of legal education now gets the wide distribution it deserves. Kennedy's insightful skewering of legal education, supplemented by his own reflections on the work and views of other legal educators, will provide prospective law students with a flavor of what they are in for -- and will remind lawyers of what they went through. Kennedy's message is as important today as it was two decades ago when he first penned this work."
-Mark Tushnet, Georgetown University
11.
"Duncan Kennedy's little red book has become a classic. But now with its republication twenty years later, Kennedy's 'polemic against the system'takes us beyond its origins as a field guide to legal education. Amplified by the voices of other distinguished scholars, this stunning collection of essays forces us to consider the ways in which hierarchies and their resulting social alienation disfigure contemporary society, not just our law schools."
-Lani Guinier, Harvard University
12.
"Kennedy's book remains one of the defining blows of critical legal studies and an enduring challenge to the entire structure of legal education. It remains as vital, incisive and daring as when it first appeared."
-Scott Turow, author of "One L: The Turbulent True Story of a First Year at Harvard Law School."
13. "Timely, important...In their thorough treatment of the subject, the authors include a history and literature review of this difficult topic, discussions of case histories, and examinations of relational dynamics and social contexts that may lead to cutting...This is a must read for those connected in any way to this topic." -"Library Journal",
14. "Insightful and sympathetic...The extraordinary depth of knowledge of the dimensions of self-injuring will increase the understanding of those who see self-injurers in their work and private lives." -Ruth Horowitz, author of "Honor and the American Dream: Culture and Identity in a Chicano Community"
15. "But more than a compendium of personal accounts, The Tender Cut charts self-injury's shift from a behavior regarded as pathological and practiced by demonstrably mentally ill to a more widely accepted coping mechanism and a vehicle for the assertion of will or identity...thought-provoking books sheds a many-rayed light on a topic often shrouded in darkness."-Haili Jones Graff, "Bitch" Magazine
16.
"An important founding text in the history of critical approaches to law taken by scholars located in law schools."
-"The Law and Politics Book Review"
17.
An important founding text in the history of critical approaches to law taken by scholars located in law schools.
-"The Law and Politics Book Review""
18.
Kennedy s book remains one of the defining blows of critical legal studies and an enduring challenge to the entire structure of legal education. It remains as vital, incisive and daring as when it first appeared.
-Scott Turow, author of "One L: The Turbulent True Story of a First Year at Harvard Law School.""
19.
Duncan Kennedy s little red book has become a classic. But now with its republication twenty years later, Kennedy's polemic against the system takes us beyond its origins as a field guide to legal education. Amplified by the voices of other distinguished scholars, this stunning collection of essays forces us to consider the ways in which hierarchies and their resulting social alienation disfigure contemporary society, not just our law schools.
-Lani Guinier, Harvard University"
20.
Duncan Kennedy's critique of legal education now gets the wide distribution it deserves. Kennedy's insightful skewering of legal education, supplemented by his own reflections on the work and views of other legal educators, will provide prospective law students with a flavor of what they are in for and will remind lawyers of what they went through. Kennedy's message is as important today as it was two decades ago when he first penned this work.
-Mark Tushnet, Georgetown University"
21.
Kennedy s book remains one of the defining blows of critical legal studies and an enduring challenge to the entire structure of legal education. It remains as vital, incisive and daring as when it first appeared.
-Scott Turow, author of One L: The Turbulent True Story of a First Year at Harvard Law School.
"
22.
Duncan Kennedy s little red book has become a classic. But now with its republication twenty years later, Kennedy's polemic against the system takes us beyond its origins as a field guide to legal education. Amplified by the voices of other distinguished scholars, this stunning collection of essays forces us to consider the ways in which hierarchies and their resulting social alienation disfigure contemporary society, not just our law schools.
-Lani Guinier, Harvard University
"
23.
An important founding text in the history of critical approaches to law taken by scholars located in law schools.
-The Law and Politics Book Review
"
24.
Duncan Kennedy's critique of legal education now gets the wide distribution it deserves. Kennedy's insightful skewering of legal education, supplemented by his own reflections on the work and views of other legal educators, will provide prospective law students with a flavor of what they are in for and will remind lawyers of what they went through. Kennedy's message is as important today as it was two decades ago when he first penned this work.
-Mark Tushnet, Georgetown University
"
