Book Description

Fred M. Vinson, the thirteenth Chief Justice of the United States, started his political career as a small-town Kentucky lawyer and rose to positions of power in all three branches of federal government. Born in Louisa, Kentucky, Vinson earned undergraduate and law degrees from Centre College in Danville. He served 12 years in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he achieved acclaim as a tax and fiscal expert. President Roosevelt appointed him to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and later named him to key executive-branch positions. President Truman appointed him Secretary of the Treasury and then Chief Justice. The Vinson court was embroiled in critical issues affecting individual rights during the cold war andracial discrimination.

Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson of Kentucky: A Political Biography offers a wealth of insight into one of the most significant and highly regarded political figures to emerge from Kentucky. ... Read more

Book Description

On April 16, 1884, Kentucky Superior Court Judge Richard Reid visited attorney John Jay Cornelison's office to discuss a legal matter.When he arrived, Cornelison accused the unsuspecting Reid of having injured his honor and then struck him repeatedly with a large hickory cane.He pursued Reid onto the street, where he began to lash him with a cowhide whip.That seemingly minor event in the small town of Mount Sterling became front-page news.The press, both local and national, raised questions regarding Reid's response.Would he react as a Christian gentleman, a man of the law, and let the legal system take its course, or would he follow the manly dictates of the code of honor and kill his assailant?

James C. Klotter crafts a detective story, using historical, medical, legal, and psychological clues to piece together answers to the tragedy that followed.This unfolding drama of an individual versus his surrounding culture reveals much about state, regional, and national temperaments in the late nineteenth century and shows the tensions between traditional southern mores and new secular and commercial forces.It also explores the conventions, values, and confusions of the archaic code of honor that ruled the South and Reid's community in particular.

With commanding prose, Klotter draws the reader into the social and judicial world of post-Civil War Kentucky and into the ageless question of choosing between forgiveness and forbearance or revenge and retribution. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Easy-to-read biography tells story, teaches history
As a teacher and the mother of four, I recommend this book to anyone who wants an enjoyable lesson on women's rights and the history of the mid-to-late 1800s. Set in towns throughout Wisconsin, this biography provides factual information about Goodell, her struggle to become a lawyer and the obstacles she faced as a women trying to do a "man's job." The book also does a great job of explaining the history of the time (slavery, abolition, temperance) in an easy-to-read fiction format. Because the book covers many issues, the author has included information about subjects the readers may not understand, like temperance and slavery. A glossary explains terms that may be new to them (abolitionists, suffrage, etc.).

Older elementary and middle school students will be able to read and understand this well-told story. I believe that this book would be a great addition to history curriculum. Also, because it accurately depicts the problems a women in the 1800s had when trying to enter a "man's profession," I think it highlights the importance of following your dreams, regardless of what gets in your way. For boys and girls alike, it provides a great lesson in the benefits of perseverance. ... Read more

Book Description

Peter Ackroyd's The Life of Thomas More is a masterful reconstruction of the life and imagination of one of the most remarkable figures of history. Thomas More (1478-1535) was a renowned statesman; the author of a political fantasy thatgave a name to a literary genre and a worldview (Utopia); and, most famously, a Catholic martyr and saint.

Born into the professional classes, Thomas More applied his formidable intellect and well-placed connections to become the most powerful man in England, second only to the king. As much a work of history as a biography, The Life of Thomas More gives an unmatched portrait of the everyday, religious, and intellectual life of the early sixteenth century. In Ackroyd's hands, this renowned "man for all seasons" emerges in the fullness of his complex humanity; we see the unexpected side of his character--such as his preference for bawdy humor--as well as his indisputable moral courage. ... Read more

Reviews (27)

An Amazing Tour of Another World
The world that Thomas More lived in, the ideas that motivated him, and the reasons he did the things that he did, are so different from the world we live in today that it may be hard for people living today to really understand them. Peter Ackroyd, however, does a superb job of placing us in that world, and inside More's head, thus giving us a portrait of a great man living on the cusp of a world-changing transformation, as the Renaissance gave way to the Enlightenment.

After reading Ackroyd's portrait, however, I find myself of two minds about Thomas More. I admire his devotion to the truth, and his refusal to bow to the demands of Henry VIII. As a Catholic, I admire his devotion to the Church and honor him as the martyr and saint that he is. At the same time, and as Ackroyd shows in this unvarnished biography, this is the same man who sent "heretics" to the stake, or to be beheaded, thus seeming to give sanction to the very methods that, in the hands of others, led to his own death. Read the book for yourself, though, and make up your own mind.

One of the most elegant biographies I've ever read!
As a voracious biography reader I have never come across a more loving, generous, and fascinating biography than this one by Peter Ackroyd. The book is resplendent with tales of life in the latter part of the middle ages. It is not only a biography but a cornucopia of interesting facts about this period of history. The author shows a remarkable ability to take you from the Christian baptism of Thomas More all the way to his death as a martyr under the brutish reign of King Henry the VIII. One of the most stunning, prolific, polished biographies I have ever read in my life! I highly recommend this one for anyone interested in history and in the life of Thomas More.

The best contempory text on the life of St. Thomas More!
Peter Ackroyd is a master of drawing the reader into the experience of Thomas More. He provides a well researched and eloquent work that justly portrays the man and saint. Even though Sir Thomas More was emersed in the difficulties of state politics, economics, and law, Peter Ackroyd never loses sight of More's deep Catholic faith: "[The Mass] was the single most important aspect of his life, and the source from which much of his earnestness and his irony, his gravity and his playfulness, springs" (112).

A Biography, Not A Character Study
"The Life Of Thomas More" introduces the reader, not only to his life story, but also to the world of the Upper Class Englishman of his day. A life long Londoner, More earned his way into a rarefied world of legends. Henry VIII was his patron turned persecutor, Erasmus was his friend and St. John Fisher was his co-martyr.

In his early life, More lived a life of sanctity, but displayed traits which would not suggest a saintly temperament. Working his way into high office in what was then Catholic England, More was confronted by the early infiltration of the Protestant movement. A strong supporter of the Church of Rome, More aggressively worked to suppress the rising heresy.

More's religious fervor, which initially put him in good stead, became a handicap when Henry VIII chose to divorce and remarry. His religious consistency then led his patrons to turn on him. His efforts to avoid taking a stand on the issues of the King's divorce and remarriage and papal supremacy ultimately failed to save his life. Recognizing his fate, More made his last testimonies at his trial and in prison to supplement his prior writings such as "Utopia".

Although this book does well at relating More's outstanding life and public career it fails to give the reader a feel for the man. Upon completion of the book, I felt that I knew about Thomas More, but did not feel that I knew him. I am glad that I read it, but I had hoped for more.

A Penetrating and Artful Book
This is a first-rate biography of the sainted Thomas More. Ackroyd's goals in this biography are to present a non-anachronistic depiction of More, and through his portrait of More, to give readers a sense of the late Medieval world destroyed by the Reformation and the emergence of nation-states. Ackroyd presents More as a man exemplifying the late Medieval ethos. Deeply religous, highly intelligent, and well educated, More existed with a profound sense of human fallibility and saw all aspects of his world as manifestations of a divine order. The world as the body of Christ, a metaphor to which Ackroyd returns repeatedly, is a recurring theme. The temporal world is transient and a necessary preparation for the eternal and in a crucial sense, less real than the eternal world of Christian teachings. This world is bound by custom and inherited legal and religous traditions, hierarchial and paternalistic in its structure of authority, and deeply enmeshed in rituals that mirror the structure of divine authority. More was not, however, a reactionary except when the radicalism of the Lutherans pushed him to stringent and violent acts needed to defend the integrity of his perception of the Christian world. A prominent member of the Northern European Humanist movement, More was dedicated to the recovery of a renovated faith based on a new reading of the Patristic fathers, attention to classical, particularly Greek neoplatonic authors, and disdain for complex scholastic theology. He and his fellow Humanists hoped for reformation of the Church without abandoning the unity of Christendom, the apparatus of ritual and hierarchy that defined so much of their lives, and the primacy of papal authority.

Ackroyd's efforts to present More and the late medieval ethos are very successful. Readers will be introduced to a foreign world, but one which is an ancestor of our contemporary society. Ackroyd's efforts at depicting the lost of world of More include not only the content but the structure of the book. Some prior reviewers commented adversely on Ackroyd's use of unmodified quotations from More's English writings. While interpreting these lines requires a little effort, that effort helps to appreciate More's style. As Ackroyd points out, for More and his contemporaries, style was not simply a matter of presentation but had a significant moral dimension. While chronologically arranged, this biography is not strictly a narrative of More's life. Each chapter is presented as an almost self contained vignette or episode from More's life. I believe this is a deliberate effort on Ackroyd's part to mimic aspects of medieval ritual and theater. This is another and I think successful effort on the part of Ackroyd to present the late Medieval world. Ackroyd argues that not only that More was dedicated to the importance of ritual and theater but that it formed a very important part of More's character and perhaps self-image. Ackroyd's construction of this book is then a doubly artful device to mirror both the world of late medieval England and More himself. ... Read more

Book Description

A riveting book about the life of "America's Lawyer," Chesterfield Smith of Florida, written by Michael L. Jamieson, his protégé, colleague, and good friend for 39 years. It should not be missed by lawyers, law students, professors, students of the profession and professional leadership, and those interested in the role of the leader of the nation's organized bar during the Watergate era.

Book Description

The fascinating intellectual history of a man and a country building a system of justice. Francis L. Nyalali served as Chief Justice of Tanzania from 1976 through 1999. This is his biography--a cosmopolitan tale of decision makers in Africa as they seek allies at home and abroad, work to make professional reputations matter, and promote popular acceptance of the rule of law. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Lacking in Original Insights
"Building the Rule of Law" by Jennifer Widner is a post-colonial history of the judiciaries of the common law countries of eastern and southern Africa, with special emphasis given to Tanzania and the country's former chief justice, Francis Nyalali.When he retired, Nyalali was the longest serving chief justice in the region and a man highly regarded around the world as a staunch advocate of judicial independence and the rule of law.

It's Nyalali's life that Widner attempts to use to articulate her work.Given the limited nature of her biographical study of Nyalali, it would have been better if she had just admitted that this was an inquiry into judicial systems in Africa and not a biography of Francis Nyalali.

Widner accomplishes her goal of displaying the region's current situation and, for the most part, how each country got to where it is.For instance, Uganda was affected mostly by the civil wars that have raged there since independence, South Africa has had the legacy of Apartheid to overcome, Botswana has been blessed with an almost ethnically homogenous population and respect for judicial independence, Zimbabwe has overcome its own Apartheid-like rule but has since slipped back into an authoritarian system even with a highly respected judiciary, Zambia suffered from a lack of exploitable resources, and Tanzania has had the struggle of uniting a country sharply divided along religious lines.

Widner's study of the region's judiciaries is solid but not terribly insightful.I guess many of the things which plague the region's courts should be easy to determine: lack of money, lack of legal knowledge by the populace, authoritarian one-party governments, civil wars, etc; so, Widner's elucidation of them is not very revealing.

"Building the Rule of Law" is a good primer for someone who has limited knowledge of the region under study.Had the book put greater emphasis on Nyalali, I would recommend it for that reason; but, readers with any substantial knowledge of the region can be forgiven for looking past this work. ... Read more

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Reviews (1)

Decent book on black women lawyers
Smith is a black male law professor at Howard University. He selects documents which discuss black women in the law from the time that the first sister was sworn in to the present. This book has great statistical facts and is a good tool for arguing why affirmative action is necessary in law schools. However, I would have preferred if a historian had written this book. As it stands, this is just a scrapbook that included selected writings on the topic. There is much academic literature on women in the law and blacks in the law and it is not incorporated well into this book. In addition, there are a number of incredible black, female law professors out there and their work on black women's legal issues barely gets addressed here. In brief, this book is a nice piece to have, but it could have been better. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Allegorical history; few solid facts here
Written in the 1950's, this book displays a remarkable lack of research and fact. Read S.W. Harman's 'Hell on the Border' instead. The book reflects more about the time it was written than the the person it is describing. ... Read more

Book Description

The Stone Court—the Court that Roosevelt tried to “pack”—played a vital role in the history of the Great Depression, World War II, and Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency. The Court also provided a bridge to the new civil liberties jurisprudence of the Warren Court.

The book reveals that the Stone Court gave its approval to a considerable expansion of executive powers, particularly in the conduct of foreign affairs and economic policy initiatives. It also solidified the evolution of judiciary self-restraint—the deference of the judiciary to the elected branches. Perhaps its most lasting legacy was the expansion of constitutionally protected rights, including the laying of the foundation for subsequent Court rulings on segregation and discrimination. ... Read more

Book Description

1927. A biography of the great moralist and agnostic, who pointed out the ugliness and hypocrisy of much of the Victorian ethic.Mark Twain said of him: "I have known him twenty years and was fond of him, and held him in as high honor as I have held any man living or dead." Luther Burbank commented, "His life and work have been an inspiration to the whole earth, shedding light in the dark places which so sadly needed light." Illustrated. ... Read more

Book Description

Field, Stephen J[ohnson]. Personal Reminiscences of Early Days in California, with Other Sketches... To Which is added the Story of his Attempted Assassination by a Former Associate on the Supreme Bench of the State by Hon. George C. Gorman. [Washington, D.C.]: Printed for a Few Friends. Not Published, [1893]. vi, 406 pp. Reprinted 2001 by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. LCCN 00-067118. ISBN 1-58477-133-X. Cloth. $85.

* Field [1816-1899] was the draftsman of the 1851 California Practice Act and went on to become an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States in 1863. Havingemigrated to California from New York in 1849, the experiences of his adventures there, personal and professional (he was both disbarred and then elected to the state legislature), are recounted in his Reminiscences, which he dictated in his later years. ""The book evinces devotion to the fact and energy of purpose, as well as some appreciation of humorous situations."": Dictionary of American Biography III:373. ... Read more