The five articles in this volume make clear the overriding significance of J. Willard Hurst (1910–1997) to the burgeoning field of U.S. legal history. They leave no doubt as to his contributions to interdisciplinary social science research, to collegial and supportive exchanges with budding scholars, and attest to the overall intellectual breadth and sensitivity of Hurst's scholarly persona.

It is indeed true, as these essays conclude, that U.S. legal history in a sense really begins with Hurst. The barren, dry bones and husks on the terrain, before him, made American legal history, an appendage to English legal history, terra incognita for most historians and other scholars. He almost single-handedly made legal experience a necessary part of social and economic history.