Focuses on scholarly writing, the judiciary, and constitutional law, tracing American legal phases from the sociological jurisprudence of the Progressive Era through the New Deal realist jurisprudence to the current reasoned elaboration. Describes the rise of justice Holmes as one of the inspirational models of the intellectual community, and his fall from grace due to alleged indifference to needs of the underprivileged.

Citation
G. Edward White, Patterns of American Legal Thought, Bobbs-Merrill (1978).