There were two books on the Seven Sister Colleges that came out in the 1970s, "Peculiar Institutions" and "I'm Radcliffe, Fly me!". Of the two, "I'm Radcliffe" is the more scholarly and ultimately the more informative book. Baker approaches her topic with the perspective of an early 70s feminist and criticizes the Sister Colleges for excessive passivity and gentility, attributes that in some ways betrayed the feminist impulses that gave birth to the schools in the first place. The histories of each school's---Barnard, Bryn Mawr, Mt. Holyoke, Radcliffe, Smith, Vassar, and Wellesley-- founding and early struggles are presented and analyzed, and Baker presents her case that the energy and dynamism of the schools' early years was superceded by a desire to educate but not "rock any boats" politically or socially. The book is a bit didactic, however, and in some ways Baker may overplay her hand.

"Peculiar Institutions" is an interesting companion piece. It is more anecdotal, more gossipy, more fun. Yet it also offers intelligent analysis of the Sister schools and the ambivalence that many educated women might have toward the colleges.

Liva Baker sets one major goal for herself in this book, and accomplishes it admirably. That goal is to craft a reassessment, which conveys to the reader that the desegregation of New Orleans public schools in the early 1960s was just as politically charged and fraught with controversy as any of the busing crises that came to the fore in the 1970s. Prior to Baker's reappraisal, the prevailing notion was that New Orleans public schools had been integrated in a reasonably peaceful fashion. In reality, the situation was far tenser, more complicated and explosive that many might have believed. Through evocative and engaging sketches of the major figures of New Orleans school desegregation, such as Creole lawyer A.P. Tureaud and courageous 5th Circuit Federal Judge J. Skelley Wright, Baker shows that, but for the actions of a few dedicated figures, New Orleans would have remained under the spell of Jim Crow. While Baker's portraits of Tureaud and Wright are wonderfully readable, her portrait of Judge Leander Perez, the race-baiting delta boss of Plaquemines Parish, is equally engrossing. The bold and conscientious actions of Tureaud and Wright are counterposed with the racist antics of Perez, who invested tremendous amounts of money in a public relations to enflame passions about desegregation. In sum, Baker has offered an accurate and insightful book that is a must for anyone interested in the regional history of America's civil rights movement.

A magnificent study of egotism at its fullest. It is easy to understand why Holmes reached the status that he did, because he spent his life in an effort to maintain the social status that he thought was his. He may have been an intellectual, but it seems he directed his efforts at establishing and maintaining a position that he thought was rightfully that of the upper class of which he considered himself supreme. A good read about a man who obtained a position in history that he did not deserve.

Ms. Baker has succeeded in developing not only a view of Justice Holmes, a free thinker and a freer spirit, but also a profile of the era or, perhaps, of several eras. Justice Holmes' life crossed a number of turning points in American jurisprudence. On the academic side, Holmes took part in sea changes in the approach taken to legal teaching and legal scholarship. On the historical side, Justice Holmes witnessed and took part in events that had a marked impact on the rule and role of law in the United States -- the Civil War, Emancipation, Reconstruction, Industrialization and aggressive business practices at the turn of the last Century, World War I and the Red Scare, the Roaring Twenties and the onset of the Great Depression.

The work provides insight into the workings of the 19th century court system, the decline in influence of the Boston aristocracy and the rise of a social conscience among the judiciary. On the whole, this is an enjoyable read for history buffs, social analysts, lawyers and those who tolerate them.