Outside In: The Oral History of Guido Calabresi

by Norman I. Silber

Overview

Guido Calabresi is an extraordinary person. His family, of Jewish heritage, occupied a secure and centuries-old position near the top of Italian society— until the rise of fascism. Guido's parents fled to America on the eve of the war in Europe, with their children, to avoid political and religious persecution. They arrived without money or social standing. Guido's talents and good fortune helped him to thrive at several elite American institutions and to become a leading legal scholar, teacher, law school dean, and judge. He would receive prizes and awards for his contributions; to legal theory, especially for opening up the area of 'law and economics'; for contributions to the modern transformation of American law schools, as the Dean of Yale Law School; and for advancing the development of law including through progressive decisions as a member of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Outside In is a unique sort of account spread across two volumes and written in Guido's remarkable voice based on recordings that which took place over a decade. It is a unique amalgam of oral history and biography, with supplementary commentaries to explain, elaborate, validate, and interpret and situate the personal narrative within its larger historical context.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780197635117
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	01/24/2023
Pages:	2
Sales rank:	551,661
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 11.30(h) x 5.80(d)

About the Author

Norman I. Silber is a professor of law and the Associate Dean for Intellectual Life at the Maurice A. Deane School of Law, Hofstra University. He was previously a Senior Research Scholar at Yale Law School. He holds an undergraduate degree from Washington University, a J.D. from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in history from Yale University.

Table of Contents

VOLUME I

Introduction to Volume I: Immigrant and Refugees

PART ONE: ITALIAN PAST

Chapter 1. Dark Times
Chapter 2. Departure and Arrival
Chapter 3. Finzi- Contini and Del Vecchio
Chapter 4. Minerbi and Calabresi
Chapter 5. Out of Place
Chapter 6. Our Wartime
Chapter 7. Postwar Dilemmas

PART TWO: STUDENT, TEACHER, AND SCHOLAR

Chapter 8. Grasping an Education
Chapter 9. Embracing Catholicism at the Old Palace
Chapter 10. A Law Student at Mid- Century
Chapter 11. Justice Black
Chapter 12. Law Through an Economic Lens
Chapter 13. Courtship
Chapter 14. Deep Structures in the Law
Chapter 15. Subterfuges and Tragic Choices
Chapter 16. Teaching Aware
Chapter 17. Judicial Sunset

VOLUME II

PART THREE: LEADING YALE LAW SCHOOL

Chapter 18. To Be a Dean
Chapter 19. The Dean's New Day
Chapter 20. Independence
Chapter 21. Restoring the Law School Building
Chapter 22. Almost a Justice: Robert Bork
Chapter 23. Conflict, Community, and Confidence: The Wall
Chapter 24. Clarence, Anita, Catharine, Jack- and Yale

PART FOUR: SITTING ON THE SECOND CIRCUIT

Chapter 25. Bill Wants Him
Chapter 26. Joining the Second Circuit
Chapter 27. The Tort Law Opinions of a Torts Professor
Chapter 28. The Anti- Discrimination Law Reasoning of an Outsider
Chapter 29. The Analytical Reasoning of a Behavioral Economist
Chapter 30. Calabresian Complexities and the Value of Dialogue
Chapter 31. The Immigration Law Decisions of an Immigrant
Chapter 32. An Egalitarian Believer's First Amendment
Chapter 33. Craft, Independence, and Ideology
Chapter 34. Giustizia e Liberta' Recollected: Bad Laws and Injustices

CODA

Chapter 35. Explanations in The Garden

IMAGE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INDEX

Editorial Reviews

"Outside In is a unique sort of account, written in Guido's remarkable voice based on recordings that which took place over a decade. The book is a unique amalgam of oral history and biography, with supplementary commentaries to explain, elaborate, validate, and interpret and situate the personal narrative within its larger historical context." — Paul Horwitz , PrawfsBlawg

"One can read this work as a vision of real American life, an introduction to the study of law and economics, a commentary on some of the most important American law books, a sociological essay on cultural integration, and an introduction to the study of the American judiciary. This book is unparalleled in describing the self-realization of a great jurist, engaged first in research and teaching, then in jurisdiction, a book that celebrates reason and integration, interesting as a novel, instructive as a study of history, as profound as a philosophical essay." — Sabino Cassese, Il Sole 24 Ore

"As a child, Guido Calabresi and his family fled fascism and a world they cherished. This is a story of how that experience of loss and dispossession shaped him and provided the insights, convictions, and heart that guided his remarkable career as he re-shaped the law as a scholar, teacher, dean and jurist. Moving and profound." — William Treanor, Dean, Georgetown University Law Center

"A notable difficulty with biographies of judges and academics is that the professional writing of their subjects is often dull, even when their ideas are brilliant and precise. Outside In doesn't have this problem...Silber lets Calabresi...speak to us in his own voice...And what a voice it is: lively, charming, witty, and revealing. The book benefits immeasurably from the extensive [commentaries] that create the very kind of running dialogue that Calabresi himself has fostered throughout his long and wide-ranging career." — John O. McGinnis, Professor of Constitutional Law, Northwestern University, Law and Liberty Blog

"This book combines family memoirs, an account of Jewish integration in Italy and the United States, an account of successful immigration, of the formation of a famous intellectual, of a piece of history of a renowned American university, and an investigation into American legal culture...The reader can learn the extraordinary story of adapting a family to a different environment; about how "trespassing" between scientific disciplines can produce invaluable results; about how to teach, to manage a faculty and argue in court; about the importance of the mastering legal theory. All this is told with great sincerity, making frequent use of anecdotes and narration of what happens behind the scenes-all this with the depth and richness of observations of a book of philosophy and a study of sociology." — Sabino Cassese, Justice Emeritus of the Italian Constitutional Court, Il Sole 24 Ore

From the Publisher