Oliver Wendell Holmes

'Catharine Pierce Wells has performed a great service with her account of Holmes' personal religion, portrayed for the first time, a pragmatic religion of duty, service, and selfless commitment to fairness in adjudication. Holmes' moral character seems inadequate to us today, Wells concedes, but his failings were limitations of the law in his time and place as much as they were personal defects.' Sheldon Novick, author of Honorable Justice: The Life of Oliver Wendell Holmes 'Wells has courageously added to the immense literature on the life and work of Oliver Wendell Holmes. An expert on the philosophy of American pragmatism, Wells - without ignoring Holmes' legal positivism - successfully reimagines Holmes' life and work in the context of American philosophical pragmatism of his time.' Margaret Jane Radin, University of Toronto 'Professor Wells has written a remarkably thoughtful and compelling book. Part biography and part intellectual history, it shows how Oliver Wendell Holmes was shaped by the social, philosophical, and religious currents of his time. Elegantly written and filled with sparkling insight, it sheds new light on the inner life of one of America's greatest judges.' Thomas Healy, Seton Hall University, New Jersey 'Professor Wells skillfully and knowledgeably portrays Holmes, his life, and the influences upon him, in their complex entirety. She takes us through Civil War combat into science, religion, philosophy, and law. Weaving them together, Holmes is renewed as a compelling standard for the continuing challenge to our national intelligence and purpose.' Frederick Kellogg, George Washington University