This fascinating book about our legal heritage is copiously illustrated with original materials. From our cultural roots in the Roman law, the Anglo-Saxon dooms, and English feudalism, to modern crises of social revolution and reform. Coquillette's work shows how legal culture is part of what has been called the "seamless web" of history. Most introductory books rely heavily, if not exclusively, on secondary sources. This book, however, provides carefully edited and chosen primary sources and culminates with provocative excerpts of the most recent twentieth century historical criticism. Also included are many useful charts and diagrams, and an extensive bibliography for each chapter suggests and encourages further study.

Today we face dynamic challenges to our system of justice and to our legal profession. The experience of the centuries, however, is available to us, as it was to the founders of our legal order in ages past. This book provides a "road map" into this vast historical resource, and the careful translation and illuminating exegesis of the original documents make this rich historical record available to everyone.