In a style that appropriately reads as a concise legal brief, Robert Spoo analyzes the tension between censorship (a form of “super-copyright” controlled by a government in league with “purity groups”) and copyright itself, which intrinsically is incapable of protecting allegedly indecent works. . . . Literary modernism should be seen, then, as Spoo rightly sees it, as what came about when the constraints of censorship (ever porous) met in complex ways with the protections (never tight) of copyright.

Common Knowledge

Spoo's Modernism and the Law addresses (and makes admirably clear) complex issues of legislation and the capitalist marketplace, as well as the vagaries of inconsistent authors. The book is also a model for writing comparatively about Joyce across the whole field of modernist studies, and, further, Spoo's perspective has contemporary relevance for those interested in 'creative industries' and 'the creative economy' in the twenty-first century.

James Joyce Quarterly

Modernism and the Law satisfies every expectation we might be likely to have for a casebook. It is a model of clarity written by a respected scholar. It balances general claims with well-chosen details and supplements obvious examples with a few less familiar ones. Spoo, who is as much a legal expert as a literary one, has the experience and authority to discern the broader patterns and discriminate among the different critical byways of the highly decentralized world of writing about law and literature.

English Literature in Transition

For legal scholars interested in the general topic of modernism and the law, this book provides some detailed and dense information that may help serve as an introduction. What Spoo does in the book is provide a balance between the theoretical foundation necessary to best understand modernism and numerous examples of how it connects to law. For those interested in understanding the study of socio- and sociolegal studies and beyond, this book is invaluable. Summing Up: Essential.

CHOICE

Let's begin by stating, up front, the indisputable merit of Modernism and the Law: Robert Spoo, a leading expert on intellectual property, copyright law, James Joyce in particular, and modernism more generally, has written the definitive version of how the Law, especially in the areas of copyright, obscenity and blackmail, was integral to the development, and the occasional diminishment and suppression of the modernist movement itself. Modernism and the Law has the thoroughness of a legal brief, even down to a seventeen-page addendum of every important legal decision concerning obscenity, copyright, defamation, libel and blackmail. But Spoo writes with the narrative flow of an experienced and skilled teacher…As complete and self-contained as it is, Spoo's book, nonetheless, feels like the beginning of a new and important dialogue in modernist studies: one between the machinations of the marketplace on the one hand, and the aspirations and frustrations of literary genius, on the other.

Joyce Literary Supplement

Showcases Spoo's extensive archival work, intense understanding of legal statutes and strategies, masterful critical reading, and elegantly precise prose ... Arriving near the end of the volume, it is a striking moment, highlighting what has been suggested throughout the book: that Spoo's interest in fair and just laws is undergirded by empathy toward people victimized by laws that are inconsistent or illogical, and that his work advocates for better legal circumstances for us all.

Review of English Studies