The famed 1914 edition of this classic is one of the small handful of works that deserve to be read by Americans to understand the 1980s. Indeed, the final three chapters, describing the decline of will and consensus in late Victorian England, stand as a stark, unmistakable reminder that such national decline can happen again.

Lecture I: The Relation Between Law and Public Opinion; Lecture II: Characteristics of Law-Making Opinion in England; Lecture III: Democracy And Legislation; Lecture IV: The Three Main Currents of Public Opinion; Lecture V: The Period of Old Toryism or Legislative Quiescence (1800-1830); Lecture VI: The Period of Benthamism or Individualism; Lecture VII: The Growth of Collectivism; Lecture VIII: The Period of Collectivism; Lecture IX: The Debt of Collectivism To Benthamism; Lecture X: Counter-Currents and Cross-Currents of Legislative Opinion; Lecture XI: Judicial Legislation; Lecture XII: Relation Between Legislative Opinion and General Public Opinion