Brotherhood of Barristers with Ren Pepitone

Brotherhood of Barristers with Ren Pepitone

Thursday, October 3 9am PT/ 11am CT/ 12pm ET/ 5pm BST

Join NACBS to celebrate the publication of Brotherhood of Barristers: A Cultural History of the British Legal Profession, 1840-1940 by Ren Pepitone.

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“How did ideas of masculinity shape the British legal profession and the wider expectations of the white-collar professional? Brotherhood of Barristers examines the cultural history of the Inns of Court – four legal societies whose rituals of symbolic brotherhood took place in their supposedly ancient halls. These societies invented traditions to create a sense of belonging among members – or, conversely, to marginalize those who did not fit the profession's ideals. Ren Pepitone examines the legal profession's efforts to maintain an exclusive, masculine culture in the face of sweeping social changes across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Utilizing established sources such as institutional records alongside diaries, guidebooks, and newspapers, this book looks afresh at the gendered operations of Victorian professional life. Brotherhood of Barristers incorporates a diverse array of historical actors, from the bar's most high-flying to struggling law students, disbarred barristers, political radicals, and women's rights campaigners.”

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Ren Pepitone is an Assistant Professor of History at New York University. Their book, Brotherhood of Barristers was published with Cambridge University Press in April 2024. Support for this work came from the NACBS, the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, the Doris G. Quinn Foundation, and the University of Cambridge. They are currently researching a project on amateur theatre in Great Britain across the twentieth century.

Sam Rutherford is Lecturer in LGBTQ+ History/History of Sexuality at the University of Glasgow. His book Teaching Gender: The British University and the Rise of Heterosexuality, 1860–1939 will be published by Oxford University Press in April 2025.