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Law, Popular Culture, and The Wizard of Oz

MSNBC.com has this interesting article on the influence of L. Frank Baum's classic The Wizard of Oz and its iconic characters on popular culture. That Dorothy, the Tin Man, the Scarecrow, the Cowardly Lion, the Wizard, and the Witches, good and bad, still have the power to transport us is fairly clear, even after seventy years, but how many of us analyze the law in that classic tale?

As it turns out, some people do. Stephen Easten of the University of Missouri, Columbia, Law School, uses the movie to teach students about witness examination.

Brian Tamahana discusses the political allegory in the book here (and yes, some of us knew it was in there, but it's still fun to read about it).

And a couple of newly published books analyzed both the history and symbolism of Baum's work: Evan I. Schwartz's Finding Oz: How L. Frank Baum Discovered the Great American Story (2009) and Rebecca Loncraine, The Real Wizard of Oz (2009).

Full post as published by Law & Humanities Blog on August 25, 2009 (boomark / email).