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Abstract

Hugh MacMahon’s work, Progress, Stability, and the Struggle for Equality: A Ramble Through the Early Years of Maine Law, 1820–1920, is a thoroughly researched, well-written narrative that provides readers with a glimpse into Maine’s past while making them contemplate legal problems that will persist far into the future. MacMahon maintains a careful balance in his writing, ensuring it is not too dulled down for legal professionals, but not too complex—with superfluous legalese—for laymen. He does a wonderful job introducing legal concepts and demonstrating how those principles were first introduced into the Pine Tree State. Through the use of legal history, the author illustrates a seemingly simpler time, in which past Maine industries, like ice harvesting and logging, flourished; demonstrates how rapidly society was changing with the Industrial Revolution, the Civil War, and the Women’s Rights Movement; and discusses how the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, sitting as the Law Court—conservative in its nature—had to delicately balance these complica

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