Book Review: iPostmodern Legal Movements: Law and Jurisprudence at Century's End/i by Gary Minda

Postmodem Legal Movements does two things. First, the bulk of the book provides an overview of American jurisprudence, from Christopher Columbus Langdell to the present. This overview is necessary because, in order to understand "postmodem forms of jurisprudence, we must first explore what came before postmodernism, that is, modernism" (p. 5). Second, the relatively short latter portion of the book presents an argument about the current state of American legal scholarship and its future. Minda's picture of contemporary legal thought is that of a paradigm shift in the making.

Postmodern Legal Movements will prove useful to those in search of a basic introduction to the standard account of American legal thought. Minda is well read in jurisprudence, and his book provides a comprehensive overview of legal philosophy as it has developed in this country during the twentieth century.