From Farmhouses to Harvard Yard: Two Boys, One Friendship, Two Fates

On this episode of Our American Stories, James Bradley Thayer and Chauncey Wright grew up in rural Massachusetts with little to suggest they would one day enter Harvard’s elite world. Yet both rose into Harvard Yard, where their paths sharply diverged. Thayer became a towering figure at Harvard Law, shaping generations of Supreme Court justices, while Wright’s brilliance was undone by personal struggle.

Historian Andrew Porwancher, a professor at Arizona State University and a Jack Miller Center Fellow, tells the story of ambition, friendship, and the thin line between promise fulfilled and promise lost. The story is adapted from his book The Prophet of Harvard Law.

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