SOURCE: "Maitland as Historian," in Frederick William Maitland and the History of English Law, 1961. Reprint by Greenwood Press, 1977, pp. 3-25.

In the following excerpt from a study of Maitland that was first published in 1961, Cameron offers an analysis of Maitland's concept of history.

[Maitland] came to history from the study of law, and the interrelationship of these two strains is evident throughout his writings. I do not mean to imply that Maitland was a narrow legal historian; this is far from the truth. Traditionally a lawyer is conservative in judgment and looks to the past only to find precedents for a case or evidence to sustain a preconceived opinion. Training in law normally does not result in historical-mindedness. Sir Frederick Pollock, who collaborated with Maitland in planning and writing The History of English Law Before the Time of Edward I, has described Maitland as "a man with a...