Description
Book SynopsisOn Trial is an exegesis on legal reason, moral judgment, political life, and the events that give them meaning. Beginning with the serpent in the Garden of Eden and ending with O. J. Simpson, esteemed thinker George Anastaplo offers students, scholars, and informed readers an exploration of justice and the rule of law through well-known trials ancient and modern, real and fictional. Anastaplo starts with an interrogation of the good common sense on which most of us draw to make successful judgments. He examines the nurturing of this faculty against rationality, moral obligation, and the contingencies of history and culture. Using classic literary sources as well as real trial histories, On Trial puts legal and moral reason squarely beneath the critical lens.
Trade ReviewIn this volume, as in many others that he has written, George Anastaplo does what readers familiar with him take for granted, knowing how often he has done it and forgetting what a rare thing it is. Who else would discuss the trials of great figures in literature an history—as if they were, or had been, equally real, and subject them to a critical examination which assumes that the issues raised by them had not only been out common business as human beings to confront from the beginning, but still are? That is what Mr. Anastaplo does here, with a seriousness that challenges the intellect and imagination we all possess, and will not allow us to claim either the poet's license or the vanished past as reasons to escpe the task of unerstanding, the risk of judgment's call. -- John Van Doren
On Trial is a delight to read, at once surprising, challenging, and entertaining. The book reveals its true treasures to the reader who begins to ask, "Who or what is on trial here? Is it O.J.? Or Shylock? Or God?" Anastaplo's interrogation of the witnesses is as profound as it is playful and enchanting. -- Chris Colmo
This is a readable, scholarly work. Recommended. * CHOICE *
On Trial invites and deserves, and will reward, careful reading. -- John A. Murley
Table of ContentsChapter 1 From Adam & Eve to Faustus Chapter 2 Clytemnestra, Electra, and Orestes Chapter 3 Jonah and the Ninevites Chapter 4 Oedipus, Creon, and Antigone Chapter 5 Abraham and Kierkegaard Chapter 6 Socrates of Athens Chapter 7 Jesus of Nazareth Chapter 8 Joan of Arc Chapter 9 Shylock and Shakespeare Chapter 10 Thomsa More, the King, and the Pope Chapter 11 John P. Altegeld and the Haymarketers Chapter 12 Notorious Defendants in Our Time Chapter 13 From Spiro T. Agnew to O. J. Simpson
