Background
Levy, Leonard Williams was born on April 9, 1923 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Son of Albert and Rae (Williams) Levy.
(In the most controversial analysis ever written of the ap...)
In the most controversial analysis ever written of the apostle of American liberty, the distinguished constitutional historian Leonard W. Levy examines Jefferson’s record on civil liberties and finds it strikingly wanting. Clearing away the saintliness that surrounds the hero, Mr. Levy tries to understand why the “unfamiliar” Jefferson supported loyalty oaths; countenanced internment camps for political suspects; drafted a bill of attainder; urged prosecutions for seditious libel; condoned military despotism; used the Army to enforce laws in time of peace; censored reading; chose professors for their political opinions; and endorsed the doctrine that means, however odious, are justified by ends. "Implicitly," Mr. Levy writes, "this book is a study of libertarian leadership in time of power and time of danger...Jefferson should be seen by his biographers as a whole man in the perspective of his times, but my task is to determine the validity of his historical reputation as the apostle of liberty." "Blunt words and blunt facts...an indispensable book."―Commentary.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0929587111/?tag=2022091-20
(The Pulitzer Prize-winning constitutional historian Leona...)
The Pulitzer Prize-winning constitutional historian Leonard Levy here collects eight of his most important essays of recent years. Written with his characterstic erudition, clarity, directness, and verve, these explorations into the history of the law are at once an entertainment and an education. One of the clearest and most eloquent liberal interpreters of law. New York Times Book Review.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002A78Q84/?tag=2022091-20
( Leonard Levy’s new book, a compendium of his law review...)
Leonard Levy’s new book, a compendium of his law review articles, book chapters, and basic shorter writings on themes with which he has long been identified, is a treasure chest of sound and reasonable analysis of American constitutional history. As one reviewer of the manuscript put matters: “There is not a clinker amongst them.” For anyone who thinks that liberal analysis has grown soft and flabby, a good dose of Levy’s book should set the record straight. Seasoned Judgments is divided into three parts: Rights, Constitutional History, and The Marshall Court. In this progression from the general to the concrete, Levy never ignores the context as well as the content of the judicial process. Indeed, it is this linkage that separates him from nearly all other commentators and writers on the subjects covered. Whether discussing why the original Constitution lacked a Bill or Rights, or why the Fourth Amendment uses the imperative form “shall not” rather than the conditional form “ought not,” the reader enters a world of explanation rich in detail and carful scholarly elaboration. Well-known as editor in chief of the multivolumed Encyclopedia of the American Constitution, this new volume extracts some of Levy’s own contributions to that effort. As a result, one can, for the first time, gain a clear sense of the author’s own profound sense of the major issues confronting American law from the founding fathers to the present. The analysis of such still unresolved issues as flag desecration, the exclusionary rule, testimonial compulsion, taxation without representation, and the nature of the Constitution itself, will be of tremendous appeal to historians and political scientists as well as attorneys and judges.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/156000925X/?tag=2022091-20
(In this fascinating history of the origins of the Bill of...)
In this fascinating history of the origins of the Bill of Rights, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Leonard W. Levy offers a panoramic view of the liberties secured by the first ten amendments to the Constitution. Levy illuminates the behind-the-scenes manoeuvrings, public rhetoric, and political motivations of James Madison and others who overcame fierce opposition to ensure the ratification of these crucial liberties.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0300089015/?tag=2022091-20
(During his thirty years as Chief Justice of the Supreme C...)
During his thirty years as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, from 1830 to 1860, Lemuel Shaw wrote approximately 2,200 opinions, probably setting a record. His writings covered the entire domain of jurisprudence, excepting admiralty, and no other state judge through his opinions alone had so great an influence on the course of American law. Through a critical study of Shaw's opinions, noted historian Leonard Levy reveals what Shaw's generation thought about the relation of the individual to the state, and of states to the nation, and how his peers perceived rights, duties, and liabilities, the roles of government, and the character of law itself. Each chapter stands as a selected aspect of American legal history--some cover the response of the law to a great social issue such as fugitive slavery or trade unionism, others attempt to show how and why changes in American industrial life necessitated accommodations in the law, and still others are concerned with the growth of legal doctrines of great consequence such as police power. Overall, the opinions of Justice Shaw illuminate how liberty and order were comparatively valued, which interests were deemed important enough to secure in legal moorings, and where the points of social tension, growth, and power were rooted.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195048652/?tag=2022091-20
(The Pulitzer Prize–winning constitutional historian Leona...)
The Pulitzer Prize–winning constitutional historian Leonard Levy here collects eight of his most important essays of recent years. Written with his characteristic erudition, clarity, directness, and verve, these explorations into the history of the law are at once an entertainment and an education. Mr. Levy begins with a long essay on the Ranters, the ornery radicals who confronted the state and repudiated the moral law in mid-seventeenth-century England. He continues with anecdotes about Supreme Court justices and—a highlight of the book—a fascinating behind-the-scenes view of the deliberation over the Pulitzer Prizes. His chronicle of a long debate with Harvard University Press over the publication of his book on blasphemy is eye-opening and confounding. He concludes with essays on the origins of the Fourth Amendment; on the critics of his prize-winning study of the Fifth Amendment; and on Lemuel Shaw, chief justice of Massachusetts from 1830 to 1860, whom Mr. Levy calls America's greatest magistrate. Together these essays are continuing proof of Mr. Levy's unmatched powers in producing readable and important scholarship.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1566632773/?tag=2022091-20
(Leonard Levy's classic work examines the circumstances th...)
Leonard Levy's classic work examines the circumstances that led to the writing of the establishment clause of the First Amendment: 'Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion. . . .' He argues that, contrary to popular belief, the framers of the Constitution intended to prohibit government aid to religion even on an impartial basis. He thus refutes the view of 'nonpreferentialists,' who interpret the clause as allowing such aid provided that the assistance is not restricted to a preferred church. For this new edition, Levy has added to his original arguments and incorporated much new material, including an analysis of Jefferson's ideas on the relationship between church and state and a discussion of the establishment clause cases brought before the Supreme Court since the book was originally published in 1986.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0807844667/?tag=2022091-20
(The Pulitzer Prize winning constitutional historian Leona...)
The Pulitzer Prize winning constitutional historian Leonard Levy here collects eight of his most important essays of recent years. Written with his characteristic erudition, clarity, directness, and verve, these explorations into the history of the law are at once an entertainment and an education. Mr. Levy begins with a long essay on the Ranters, the ornery radicals who confronted the state and r...
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FFBAEYG/?tag=2022091-20
( Leonard Levy's new book, a compendium of his law review...)
Leonard Levy's new book, a compendium of his law review articles, book chapters, and basic shorter writings on themes with which he has long been identified, is a treasure chest of sound and reasonable analysis of American constitutional history. As one reviewer of the manuscript put matters: "There is not a clinker amongst them." For anyone who thinks that liberal analysis has grown soft and flabby, a good dose of Levy's book should set the record straight. Seasoned Judgments is divided into three parts: Rights, Constitutional History, and The Marshall Court. In this progression from the general to the concrete, Levy never ignores the context as well as the content of the judicial process. Indeed, it is this linkage that separates him from nearly all other commentators and writers on the subjects covered. Whether discussing why the original Constitution lacked a Bill or Rights, or why the Fourth Amendment uses the imperative form "shall not" rather than the conditional form "ought not," the reader enters a world of explanation rich in detail and carful scholarly elaboration. Well-known as editor in chief of the multivolumed Encyclopedia of the American Constitution, this new volume extracts some of Levy's own contributions to that effort. As a result, one can, for the first time, gain a clear sense of the author's own profound sense of the major issues confronting American law from the founding fathers to the present. The analysis of such still unresolved issues as flag desecration, the exclusionary rule, testimonial compulsion, taxation without representation, and the nature of the Constitution itself, will be of tremendous appeal to historians and political scientists as well as attorneys and judges.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1560001704/?tag=2022091-20
(What did "freedom of the press" really mean to the framer...)
What did "freedom of the press" really mean to the framers of the First Amendment and their contemporaries? This masterful book by a Pulitzer Prize-winning constitutional historian answers that question. In Emergence of a Free Press (a greatly revised and enlarged edition of his landmark Legacy of Suppression), Leonard W. Levy argues that the First Amendment was not designed to be the bulwark of a free press that many thought, nor had the amendment's framers intended to overturn the common law of seditious libel that was the principal means of stifling political dissent. Yet he notes how robust and rambunctious the early press was, and he takes that paradox into account in tracing the succession of cases and reforms that figured in the genesis of a free press. Mr. Levy's brilliant account offers a new generation of readers a penetrating look into the origins of one of America's most cherished freedoms. Leonard W. Levy, whose Origins of the Fifth Amendment won the Pulitzer Prize in history, is formerly Earl Warren Professor of Constitutional History at Brandeis University and Andrew W. Mellon All-Claremont Professor of Humanities and History at the Claremont Graduate School. His other writings, many of which have also won awards, include The Palladium of Justice, Blasphemy, The Establishment Clause, Freedom of the Press from Zenger to Jefferson, Original Intent and the Framers' Constitution, and Jefferson and Civil Liberties. He lives in Ashland, Oregon.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000M23TPY/?tag=2022091-20
(Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in history and a landmark in...)
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in history and a landmark in the study of constitutional origins, Leonard Levy’s now-classic study appears for the first time in paperback. Origins probes the intentions of the framers of the Fifth Amendment and emphasizes their belief that in a society based upon respect for the individual, it is more important that the accused not unwillingly contribute to his conviction than that the guilty be punished. "A work of monumental scholarship―broad in scope, thorough, carefully annotated, accurate, and imaginative."―Political Science Quarterly. "Vastly learned...everywhere critical and reflective...written in a style at once lucid and vigorous. All in all, it is quite clearly one of the important contributions to historical literature."―Henry Steele Commager. "A matchless contribution to our understanding of the historical background underlying the adoption of a major provision of the Bill of Rights."―American Political Science Review. "A masterful job."―Oscar Handlin.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1566632706/?tag=2022091-20
(Leonard Levy traces the development and implementation of...)
Leonard Levy traces the development and implementation of forfeiture and contends that it is a questionable practice, which, because it is so often abused, serves only to undermine civil society. Arguing that civil forfeiture is unconstitutional, Levy provides examples of the victimization of innocent people and demonstrates that it has been used primarily against petty offienders rather than against its original targets, members of organized crime.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0807822426/?tag=2022091-20
(Leonard Levy traces the varied meanings of blasphemy thro...)
Leonard Levy traces the varied meanings of blasphemy throughout Western law. He argues that while past sanctions against the crime have inhibited all manner of cultural, political, scientific, and literary expression, we also pay a price for our extraordinary expansion of the scope of permissible speech. We have become, he charges, not only a free society but one that is 'numb' to outrage.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0807845159/?tag=2022091-20
(Trial by jury is the mainstay of the accusatorial system ...)
Trial by jury is the mainstay of the accusatorial system of criminal justice. Here one of our most distinguished constitutional scholars, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Leonard Levy, brings his formidable skills to bear in tracing the development of what many great legal minds have called the “Palladium of Justice.” Mr. Levy identifies the roots of trial by jury in the inquest, a medieval investigatory body whose members were sworn to tell the truth and whose verdicts of guilt or innocence were used by royal courts. From about 1376 the custom of requiring a unanimous verdict from twelve jurors developed. By the mid-fifteenth century, juries―supposedly representative of the community―were beginning to hear evidence that was produced in court. No one could lose life, limb, liberty, or property in a civil or criminal case without a unanimous verdict of guilt. In the American colonies, trial by jury thrived, and from the time of Peter Zenger’s famous test of press freedom in 1735, the jury decided the law as well as the facts. By 1776 trail by jury was a common right. Recounting the history with his characteristic clarity, vigor, and elegance of expression, Mr. Levy has given us a brilliant and useful summary of one of our most cherished freedoms.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1566633133/?tag=2022091-20
( What did "freedom of the press" really mean to the fram...)
What did "freedom of the press" really mean to the framers of the First Amendment and their contemporaries? This masterful book by a Pulitzer Prize–winning constitutional historian answers that question. In Emergence of a Free Press (a greatly revised and enlarged edition of his landmark Legacy of Suppression ), Leonard W. Levy argues that the First Amendment was not designed to be the bulwark of a free press that many thought, nor had the amendment's framers intended to overturn the common law of seditious libel that was the principal means of stifling political dissent. Yet he notes how robust and rambunctious the early press was, and he takes that paradox into account in tracing the succession of cases and reforms that figured in the genesis of a free press. Mr. Levy's brilliant account offers a new generation of readers a penetrating look into the origins of one of America's most cherished freedoms.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00F6IB6HW/?tag=2022091-20
Levy, Leonard Williams was born on April 9, 1923 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Son of Albert and Rae (Williams) Levy.
Bachelor of Science, Columbia University, 1947. Master of Arts, Columbia University, 1948. Doctor of Philosophy (University fellow), Columbia University, 1951.
Doctor of Humane Letters, Brandeis University, 1987. Doctor of Humane Letters (honorary), Claremont Graduate School, 1991. Doctor of Humane Letters (honorary), Ripon College, 1996.
Research assistant, Columbia University, 1950-1951;
instructor, assistant professor, associate professor, professor, Brandeis U., Waltham, Massachusetts, 1951-1970;
first incumbent Earl Warren chair constitutional history, Brandeis U., Waltham, Massachusetts, 1957-1970;
dean Graduate School Arts and Sciences, Brandeis U., Waltham, Massachusetts, 1958-1963;
dean faculty arts and science, Brandeis U., Waltham, Massachusetts, 1963-1966;
Andrew W. Mellon professor humanities, history, chairman graduate faculty history, Claremont (California) Graduate School, 1970-1990;
professor emeritus, Claremont (California) Graduate School, since 1990;
Distinguished scholar in residence, Southern Oregon State College, since 1990. Reiser lecturer University of Chicago Law School, 1964. Gaspar Bacon lecturer Boston University,1972.
Elliott lecturer University of Southern California Law School, 1972. Hugo Black lectr.U. Alabama, 1976. Bicentennial lecturer, City of St. Louis, 1976.
Distinguished lecturer U. Cincinnati, 1978.
( Leonard Levy’s new book, a compendium of his law review...)
( Leonard Levy's new book, a compendium of his law review...)
(What did "freedom of the press" really mean to the framer...)
( What did "freedom of the press" really mean to the fram...)
(Leonard Levy's classic work examines the circumstances th...)
(Leonard Levy traces the development and implementation of...)
(Leonard Levy, whose Origins of the Fifth Amendment receiv...)
(During his thirty years as Chief Justice of the Supreme C...)
(Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in history and a landmark in...)
(In the most controversial analysis ever written of the ap...)
(The Pulitzer Prize-winning constitutional historian Leona...)
(The Pulitzer Prize–winning constitutional historian Leona...)
(The Pulitzer Prize winning constitutional historian Leona...)
(In this fascinating history of the origins of the Bill of...)
(Trial by jury is the mainstay of the accusatorial system ...)
(Leonard Levy traces the varied meanings of blasphemy thro...)
(Light age spotting to covers, light edge wear, uncreased....)
(Religious Studies, English Studies, British Studies)
(Book by Levy, Leonard Williams)
(Book by Levy, Leonard Williams)
(Index, bibliography, notes. Library of Congress number 67...)
(Will be shipped from US. Used books may not include compa...)
(4 volume hard cover set. includes: The American Society e...)
(Leonard W. Levy's Legacy of Suppression so disturbed Supr...)
Member national board Commission on Law and Social Action, American Jewish Congress. Member United States Bicentennial Commission American Revolution, 1966-1968. Member executive council Institute for Early American History and Culture.
Member national advisory council American Civil Liberties Union, Pulitzer prize juror, chairman biographical jury, 1974, history jury, 1976. With Army of the United States, 1943-1946. Member American History Association (Littleton-Griswold committee legal history), Organization American Historians, American Society Legal History (director), American Antiquarian Society, Society of America Historians, Institute Early American History and Culture (executive council), Massachusetts History Society, Kappa Delta Pi.
Married Elyse Gitlow, October 21, 1944. Children: Wendy Ellen, Leslie Anne.