G. Edward White
David and Mary Harrison Distinguished Professor of Law
J.D., Harvard Law School, 1970
Ph.D., Yale University, 1967
M.A., Yale University , 1964
B.A., Amherst College, 1963
G. Edward White joined the Virginia law faculty in 1972 after a clerkship with Chief Justice Earl Warren of the Supreme Court of the United States and a year as visiting scholar at the American Bar Foundation. He was appointed John B. Minor Professor of Law and History in 1987, and held that chair until 2003, when he became David and Mary Harrison Distinguished Professor of Law. In 1992, he was appointed to a University Professorship, which he held until 2003. From 1990 until 1992 and from 2001-03, he was the Sullivan & Cromwell Research Professor; from 1994-97 the E. James Kelly Research Professor; and from 1999-2001 the Class of 1963 Research Professor. He has held visiting appointments at New York Law School, William & Mary School of Law, Brooklyn Law School, Arizona College of Law, the London School of Economics and Political Science, the University of Auckland Law School and Harvard Law School. He has been a Guggenheim Fellow, and twice a senior fellow of the National Endowment for the Humanities. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, a fellow of the Society of American Historians, and a member of the American Law Institute. He received the Roger and Madeleine Traynor Faculty Achievement Award in 2008.
White's 15 published books have won numerous honors and awards. These include final listing for the Pulitzer Prize in history, the Silver Gavel Award from the American Bar Association, the James Willard Hurst Prize from the Law & Society Association, the Littleton-Griswold Prize from the American Historical Association, the Scribes Award and the Association of American Law Schools' Triennial Coif Award. White's books have garnered 15 such honors and awards since 1976.
White was editor of the Studies in Legal History series for the American Society for Legal History and the University of North Carolina Press from 1980-85, and adviser on law manuscripts for Oxford University Press from 1986-96. He served on the Board of Directors of the American Society for Legal History from 1977-79, and on the Board of Editors of the Virginia Quarterly Review from 1980-2002.
White has delivered several endowed lectures, including the inaugural John Marshall Lecture, sponsored by the Boston Bar Association; the inaugural Jerome Hall Lecture at Hastings College of Law; the Swinford Lecture, sponsored by the University of Kentucky School of Law and the Kentucky Bar Association; the Keck Lecture at Amherst College, the Rosenthal Lectures at Northwestern University School of Law; the Neesima Lectures at Doshisha University, Japan; the Fulton Lecture at the Chicago School of Law, the Knowlton Distinguished Lecture at the University of South Carolina School of Law, and the Hendricks Law and History Lecture at Washington & Lee Law School. His most recent lecture was the 2012 Legal Research Foundation Lecture at the University of Auckland Law School.
White’s 1996 book, Creating the National Pastime: Baseball Transforms Itself, 1903-1953, reflects his life-long participation and interest in athletics. He lettered in four sports in college, formerly coached the Charlottesville High School girls soccer team, and has won a number of state- and citywide tournaments in doubles squash.
Scholarship Profile: Championing the Rebirth of Constitutional History (Virginia Journal 1999)
Publications
Current Courses
All Courses
- Constitutional Law Scholarship and the Scholarly Process (seminar)
- First Amendment Freedoms
- Judicial Role in American History
- Mass Media Law
- Torts
In the Media
- "Obama's Supreme Court Brief on Same-Sex Marriage Will Have Little Impact: Experts" (NBC, 02/28/2013)
- "Republican Group Aims Pro-Gay Marriage Brief at Conservative High Court Justices" (NBC Southern California, 02/26/2013)
- "G. Edward White: West Coast Hotel’s Place in American Constitutional History" (The Originalism Blog, 10/11/2012)
- "Roberts Rejects Partisanship in Backing Obama Health Law" (Bloomberg, and in Businessweek, 06/28/2012)
- "Obama Health Law Seen Valid by Scholars Expecting Rejection" (Bloomberg News, 06/24/2012)
- "White: 'Soldiers' Faith' on Memorial Day" (Author) (Savannah Morning News, 05/28/2012)
- "Unraveling Oliver Wendell Holmes' 'The Soldier's Faith'" (Author) (Boston Herald, 05/28/2012)
- "Ted White Q&A: On Capitalism and Tort Law" (Legal History Blog, 03/30/2012)
- "Ted White Q&A: Historiography Across Generations" (Legal History Blog, 03/28/2012)
- "Ted White Q&A: Law in American History and Methodologies" (Legal History Blog, 03/27/2012)
- "Ted White Q&A: Law in American History in the Scholarly Market" (Legal History Blog, 03/21/2012)
- "Ted White Q&A: On Judicial Biography and 'Great Man' History (or Not)?" (Legal History Blog, 03/14/2012)
- "Ted White Q&A: "Follow Up on Marshall Court & Intellectual History" (Legal History Blog, 03/12/2012)
- "Ted White Q&A: On the Marshall Court and Cultural Change" (Legal History Blog, 03/08/2012)
- "Ted White Q&A: On Writing a Synthetic Work" (Legal History Blog, 03/07/2012)
- "Ted White Q&A: Why Three Volumes?" (Legal History Blog, 03/05/2012)
- "G. Edward White: Then & Now" (Legal History Blog, 03/01/2012)
- "G. Edward White's Law in American History: Volume 1" (Legal History Blog, 02/08/2012)
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"Albemarle's Book Removal Decision Receives National Criticism" (NBC 29, 08/16/2011)
- "White on the Law in American History" (Legal History Blog, 11/23/2010)
- "G. Edward White Describes Patterns of American Legal Thought" (Quid Pro Books, 07/26/2010)
- "Justice Stevens Turns 90; Only Holmes was Older (The Associated Press, 04/19/2010)
- "'Atom spy' verdict is in, and again it's guilty" (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 09/15/2008)
- "States act to shield Gun Holders" (USA Today, 04/24/2008)
- "The Corruption Crisis in Athletics" (author) (AScribe, 09/25/2007)
- "Whittaker Chambers Library To Open" (GOPUSA, 07/17/2007)
- "Stepping Out Of the Shadows/After Nearly 60 Years, Alger Hiss's Stepson Is Finally Making His Case for the Innocence of the Notorious Alleged Spy" (Washington Post, 04/05/2007)
- "High Court Becomes More Media Friendly" (Associated Press, 12/25/2006)
- "'World' Baseball Classic Defies Globalization" (Agence France Presse, 02/28/2006)
- "Supreme Switch/Did FDR's Threat to 'Pack' the Court in 1937 Really Change the Course of Constitutional History?" (The Boston Globe, 12/04/2005)
- "Collins Finds Roberts To Be ‘Very Forthright'" (Portland Press Herald, 09/10/2005)
- "Specter Likely To Be the Lightning Rod/Senator Has an Agenda for Judicial Hearing" (The Washington Post, 09/02/2005)
- "Supreme Court/You Say You Want a Revolution" (National Journal, 07/29/2005)
- "Women, Minority Advocacy Groups Express Disappointment in Pick" (Dallas Morning News/Grand Forks Herald, 07/20/2005)
- "Counter Evolution" (The New Republic, 07/05/2005)
- "For A's, Way to San Jose Paved with Uncertainty/Giants' Territorial Rights Big Obstacle" (San Jose [Calif.] Mercury News, 02/20/2005)
- "Examining the Inner World of Improbable Spy, Alger Hiss" (The Washington Times, 06/27/2004)
- "Lawyer's Bookshelf" (New York Law Journal, 06/25/2004)
- "Cold War Figure Still Looms Over Washington" (The Baltimore Sun, 06/13/2004)
- "Lost Innocence" (Commentary, 04/01/2004)