This is an I-Heart podcast.

And we continue with our American stories.

Amid the halls of Harvard Law,

a professor of legend James Bradley Thayer shaped

generations of students from 1874 to 1902. His devoted protégés include future Supreme Court

Justice's Holmes, Brandeis, and Hand, just to name a few. This is the story of how two

country boys rose to the highest heights

of Harvard Yard, with their lives would have two dramatically different fates. Here to tell the story

is Andrew Porwancher. Andrew is a professor of legal history in Arizona State University.

Let's take a listen.

There was little in the childhoods of James Bradley Thayer and Chauncey Wright that suggested either of them

was destined for the rarefied quads of Harvard Yard.

After all, in their world, the world of Antebellum New England, the typical Harvard man belonged to

what became known as the Boston Brahmin, the elite of society.

The sons of the Brahmin grew up in the fashionable neighborhood of Beacon Hill.

They attended posh private schools.

They stood to inherit vast family fortunes.

By contrast, James and Chaunce were born into modest circumstances in a small town in western Massachusetts rural countryside.

Against the odds, James would earn an endowed chair at Harvard Law, where he mentored

future generations of Supreme Court justices.

Chauncey would also come to teach at Harvard, ranking among the most innovative and

influential philosophers of his generation. This is the story of their improbable rise into

...