Charles A. Reich Explained

Charles A. Reich
Birth Name:Charles Alan Reich
Birth Date:20 May 1928
Birth Place:New York City, New York, U.S.
Death Place:San Francisco, California, U.S.
Known For:The Greening of America (1970)
Alma Mater:Oberlin College (BA)
Yale University (LLB)

Charles Alan Reich (;[1] May 20, 1928 – June 15, 2019) was an American academic and writer best known for writing the 1970 book, The Greening of America, a paean to the counterculture of the 1960s. Excerpts of the book first appeared in The New Yorker,[2] and its seismic reception there[3] contributed to the book leading The New York Times Best Seller list. Due to the theme and implications of this book Reich was described as a "high priest of antitechnology".[4]

Life

Reich was born in New York City to a medical family. He attended City and Country School and Lincoln School in the city prior to undergraduate studies at Oberlin College, receiving his B.A. in 1949.[5] [6] As a law student, he was editor-in-chief of the Yale Law Journal for 1951–1952[7] and he clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo L. Black during the 1953–1954 term.[8] [9] During this period he also became a friend of Justice William O. Douglas, as he recounts in his autobiography. Prior to his academic career he worked for six years as a lawyer at the white-shoe firms Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York[10] and Arnold & Porter in Washington, D.C.[11] [12]

Reich was a professor at Yale Law School from 1960 to 1974. His "The New Property" influenced the Supreme Court to broaden its conceptualization of property in the landmark administrative law case Goldberg v. Kelly.[13] [14] Bill Clinton, Samuel Alito, and Hillary Clinton were students of Reich when he was writing The Greening of America and he is mentioned in their biographies.[15] Reich left Yale in 1974 to move to San Francisco, although he continued as a visiting professor from 1974 to 1976. He returned to teach at Yale from 1991 to 1994 and in February 2011.[3] The Yale Law School Association selected Reich for its Award of Merit in 2008.[16]

Reich was gay, and came to terms with this in San Francisco during the 1970s era of rapidly advancing gay rights.[17] He came out during this early period of the modern LGBT rights movement and in his autobiography he details his activism and the process of coming to terms with his then long-repressed sexuality.[11] Decades later Reich was less active in LGBT affairs and explicitly stated that his need to live alone "trumped" sexual orientation as meaningful in his life.[5]

Reich died in San Francisco on June 15, 2019.

Publications

Articles

Reich wrote numerous articles. The following is a selection:

Books

Reich also authored and co-authored a number of books. The following is a selection:

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: Charles Reich, Who Saw 'The Greening of America,' Dies at 91. Roberts. Sam. The New York Times. June 17, 2019. June 22, 2019.
  2. Reich . Charles A. . Reflections: The Greening of America . . 42 . 1970-09-26 .
  3. Web site: Schwartz . Daniel . The Greening of America turns 40: Q&A: Charles Reich . CBC News . 2010-09-27 .
  4. Book: Florman, Samuel C. . The existential pleasures of engineering . St. Martin's Griffin . 1994 . 978-0-312-14104-2 . 2nd . New York . 47.
  5. Web site: Ghiglione . Loren . Before Occupy Wall Street there was The Greening of America . Traveling with Twain: In Search of America's Identity . Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism . 2012 . 2013-02-02 . 2013-07-20 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130720225708/http://travelingwithtwain.org/2012/01/07/san-francisco-ca/before-occupy-wall-street-there-was-the-greening-of-america/ . dead .
  6. Reich . Charles A. . Letters: Offering respects . Oberlin Alumni Magazine . Spring 2003 . 98 . 4 . June 24, 2019.
  7. Web site: The Yale Law Journal, May 1952, 6 (5) . 2009-03-02 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110602235918/http://www.yalelawjournal.org/images/mastheads/61.pdf . 2011-06-02 . dead .
  8. Reich . Charles A. . Deciding the Fate of Brown . Green Bag . New Series . 2004 . 7 . 137 . June 25, 2019.
  9. Peppers . Todd C. . Justice Hugo Black and His Law Clerks: Match-Making and Match Point . Journal of Supreme Court History . 36 . 48–61 . 2011 . 10.1111/j.1540-5818.2011.01257.x . 146528198 . Paid subscription access
  10. Swygert . Michael I. . Charles A. Reich, The Greening of America . Valparaiso University Law Review . 5 . 3 . 1971 .
  11. Book: Reich, Charles A. . The Sorcerer of Bolinas Reef . . 1976 . New York . 9780394491929 . registration .
  12. Citron . Rodger D. . Charles Reich's Journey From the Yale Law Journal to the New York Times Best-Seller List: The Personal History of The Greening of America . . 52 . 3 . . New York . Jul 2007 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20100619210758/http://www.nyls.edu/user_files/1/3/4/17/49/NLRvol52-307.pdf . 2010-06-19 .
  13. Aman, Alfred C.. (2014). Administrative Law and Process. Third ed. LexisNexis (51).
  14. News: Elhauge . Einer . Opinion: The New 'New Property' . June 21, 2019 . San Francisco Chronicle . November 6, 2000.
  15. Book: Clinton . Hilary Rodham . Living History . 2004 . Simon and Schuster . New York . 9780743222259 . 44 . June 22, 2019.
  16. http://www.law.yale.edu/alumni/awardofmerit.htm Award of Merit
  17. Web site: Charles Reich, counterculture author who wrote 'The Greening of America,' dies at 91. Italie. Hillel. June 18, 2019. Los Angeles Times. 2019-06-26.