Free Justice

“A definitive history of this important yet conflicted institution. . . . Taking readers from the Progressive Era to the height of the Cold War, Mayeux shows the stages by which influential reformers crafted our current indigent-defense system.”—The Nation

“An outstanding account of what the defender became and how it got there. In telling this story, Mayeux also provides an exceptional account of the growth and evolution of the practice of law in America—one that any lawyer interested in the history of their profession should read.”—Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books

“Mayeux provides a historical example of a community-based public defender’s office that sought justice outside the courtroom. . . . [S]he leaves readers with a provocative thought: If we moved beyond adversarialism, what kind of legal representation could defendants receive?”—New York Review of Books

“Mayeux reveals core features of American political culture and political economy across a changing twentieth century. This is a brilliant book that should be read by everyone interested in the dimensions of the contemporary American legal regime.”—Hendrik Hartog, Class of 1921 Bicentennial Professor in the History of American Law and Liberty, Emeritus, Princeton University

“This is an excellent work of legal history that speaks to the present as we systemically think about the connections between poverty, race, incarceration, and the criminal justice system.”—Felice Batlan, author of Women and Justice for the Poor: A History of Legal Aid, 1863–1945

“Sara Mayeux brilliantly uses the contested history of public defenders as a lens to examine and illuminate American conceptions of democracy, liberalism, socialism, and even our broader political culture.  Free Justice marks the dazzling debut of a supremely gifted legal historian.”—Justin Driver, author of The Schoolhouse Gate: Public Education, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for the American Mind

“Free Justice details a remarkable transformation in the attitudes of white-shoe lawyers, Supreme Court justices, and law professors. In the early 1900s, they envisioned indigent criminal defense as an endeavor for private charity and equated public defense with totalitarianism. By mid-century, they insisted on public defense in criminal trials as a Cold War imperative. And by the end of the 1960s, necessity had forced them to redefine it as a vital element of the War on Crime. Only in the United States! Sara Mayeux’s important, beautifully written book shows us the elite legal profession shaping and being shaped by society and reminds us of the tension between the Warren Court’s great ideals and their implementation. Brava!”—Laura Kalman, author of The Long Reach of the Sixties: LBJ, Nixon, and the Making of the Contemporary Supreme Court