The Application to Legal History of the Methodologies of Intellectual History miliarn W. Fisher IIP This paper describes and assesses the recent increase in use by American legal historians of methods of reading and analysis originally developed by intellectual historians. It begins by sketching the methodological turmoil that in the past two decades has characterized the field of intellectual history. It then considers how the four reasonably distinct methodologies that have emerged from that turmoil have influenced the study of the development of American legal doctrine and legal thought. Finally, the paper argues that these methodological innovations are best evaluated from a purposive or pragmatic standpoint; it considers a variety of possible uses of history in general and legal history in particular, then considers which (if any) of the four methodologies is best suited to the attainment of each of those ends. I. Intellectual history refers, broadly, to the history of what people have thought about and believed - inferred, most often, fromwhat they have written. It is conventionally juxtaposed to the history of political institutions, the histc^ry of economic systems, and the history of social life. In the United States, intellectual history achieved its maximumprestige and influence among the historical disciplines in the second quarter of the twentieth century. The work that set the tone for that generation was Vernon Farrington’s three-volume Main Currents in American Thought.^ The great intellectual historians who followed Farrington - Merle Curti,^ Ralph Gabriel,'* ’ Professor of Law, Harvard University; Director, Harvard Program on Legal History. A preliminary version of this paper was presented at the October 1992 meeting of the American Societv for Legal History. A meire developed version was presented at a conference sponsored by the Olin Foundation for Legal History, held in Florence, Italy in June 1995. The comments of the participants in the two meetings improved the argument. ^ Vernon L. Parrington, Mam Curremts in American Thought; An Interpretation ofAmerican Literaturefrom the Beginnings to 1920 (NewYork: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1927-1930). Sec, e.g.. Merle Curti, The Grozeth ofAmerican Thought (NewYork: Harper &: Bros., 1943). ■* See, e.g., Ralph Gabriel, The Course ofAmerican Democratic Thought: An Intellectual History Since 1815 (NewYork: Ronald Press Co., 1940).
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