Book Description

Suffering from a bad heart, emphysema, glaucoma, and deafness, Thurgood Marshall finally retired from the Supreme Court at the age of 82 in spite of having always claimed "I was appointed to a life term, and I intend to serve it." Many observers felt he should have left much earlier.

Life appointments make Supreme Court justices among the most powerful officials in government and allow even dysfunctional judges to stay on long after they should have departed. For that reason, when a justice leaves the bench is often as controversial as when he's appointed. This first comprehensive historical treatment of their deaths, resignations, and retirements explains when and why justices do step down. It considers the diverse circumstances under which they leave office and clarifies why they often are reluctant to, showing how factors like pensions, party loyalty, or personal pride come into play. It also relates physical ailments to mental faculties, offering examples of how a justice's disability sometimes affects Court decisions.

David Atkinson examines each of the nearly 100 men who have left the bench and provides anecdotal glimpses into the lives of famous and obscure justices alike. He reveals how men like Salmon Chase and William O. Douglas determinedly continued to serve after suffering strokes, how Joseph McKenna persevered despite knowing he was professionally unqualified, and how, long before Thurgood Marshall, the ailing octogenarian Gabriel Duvall finally retired after struggling to protect another ideological position on the Court.

Ultimately, Atkinson shows just how human these people are and enhances our understanding of how the Court conducts its business. He also suggests specific ways to improve the present situation, weighing the pros and cons of mandatory retirement and calling for reform in the delegation of duties to law clerks--who in recent years have dominated the actual writing of many justices' decisions.

As the current Court ages, how long might we expect justices to remain on the bench? Because our next president will likely make several appointments, now is the time to consider what shape the Supreme Court will take in the next century. Offering a wealth of information never before collected, Leaving the Bench provides substantial grist for that debate and will serve as an unimpeachable reference on the Court. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Unique and fascinating
This book gives the details on the death and/or retirement of every Supreme Court justice, and gathers information not easily found any place else. The book is meticulously researched, and presents, after the examination of the problems sometimes encountered with Supreme Court justices who would not resign, a simple and I think probably effective solution which would not require a Constituional amendment. The book also includes an appendix which lists the burial site of each Justice. Ten are buried in Arlington Cemetery and none are buried west of Boulder, Colorado. Anyone interested in Supreme Court history will find this book hard to lay down. I did.

Curiously addictive scholarship
I am a Supreme Court junkie but I confess this is one of the most curious books about the court that I have ever read. If you thought that there was no aspect of the lives of US Supreme Court justices too obscure for CQ's The Supreme Court Compendium to answer, think again.

David Atkinson's book looks at only one thing - the circumstances in which US Supreme Court justices come to leave the bench and the details of their deaths. I suspect that some might consider this book the epitome of the scholarship of trivia but I would disagree. It has a very narrow focus but a larger and more important picture emerges from it - the reluctance of justices to leave the bench and the near impossibility of removing them against their will. By the time you have read it you may be surprised how many justices remained on the bench long past their "sell by" dates. It is also interesting to see the strange devices adopted by the court to work around the problems of coping with brain damaged, mentally unstable, or senile tenured colleagues.

Atkinson's scholarship is impeccable - no justice is too obscure or their tenure too distant or too short for him to have unearthed nothing about them. The book details what is known about the circumstances in which each justice left the bench whether through death, resignation or retirement. For completeness Atkinson always gives details of the circumstances (both physical and medical) in which each justice died. The level of detail is extraodinary - it even includes details of members of the court attending their funerals or of justices who refused to sign their testimonials.

My biggest headache was giving this book its star rating. I first considered a three star rating because in the ranks of Supreme Court studies this must bring up the rear. However, the book deserves to be judged in terms of what it set out to achieve: to catalog the circumsrtances in which justices leave the Supreme Court bench. Its achievement cannot be faulted in those terms and thus it earns its five stars.

However, in quite different terms it also merits five stars. I bought this book mainly as a reference source but found myself reading it straight through. Because coverage is comprehensive and the section on each justice is short, the whole book is curiously addictive. 'Leaving the Bench' had to compete with my pleasure reading of John Grisham's novel The Brethren - and Mr Atkinson won. I'm not suggesting that University Press of Kansas has a dark horse best seller on its hands but this book really can be read with interest. ... Read more

Amazon.com

William Jennings Bryan is one of the most influential "failures" of American politics: a three-time Democratic nominee for president who, although he never won the office, transformed his party into an institution "pledged," in biographer Robert W. Cherny's words, "to use the power of government on behalf of those displaced and disadvantaged by the advance of industrialization and the emergence of corporate behemoths." Although he is best remembered for two events--his electrifying "cross of gold" speech at the 1896 Democratic convention and his work for the prosecution in the Scopes trial of 1925--his career was extremely rich in incident. Cherny draws amply upon Bryan's own writings and correspondence to produce a portrait of the lifelong political crusader that, while comparatively short in length, offers a substantial evaluation of his legacy. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

A very good biography of Bryan.
The Democratic party William Jennings Bryan took control of in 1896 is a far cry from that same party today. The person most responsible for this change is Bryan. As the book points out Bryan was no intellectual giant; but how many of America's leaders have been? To quote Mr. Cherny, to Bryan "Expertise counted for less than a good heart and a principled outlook." The "Great Commoner" saw things in black and white, good vs. evil and when he had decided what was right he took up cause after cause with a zeal not often found among politicans.

It is often said that the proof is in the pudding, and the proof of Bryan's sweeping influence can be found during the New Deal as one after another his ideas were passed into law. He could of course be wrong as one of his pet projects prohibition and his unfortunate trip to Dayton show. On the other hand one has to wonder how much less the depression would have hurt the common people if more of Bryan's ideas had been made into law before 1929. Like him or not William Jennings Bryan has had more influence on American public policy than at least half of the men who won presidential elections.

As for this particular book. It is very well written and keeps the reader's interest. It is on the short side but provides a very good overview of Bryan's life and carear. The only reason I took away one star was because it is not well documented. No footnotes are to be found and in places they are badly needed. Otherwise this is a very good work dealing with one of America's greats.

An excellent introduction to the "Great Commoner"...
William Jennings Bryan (1860-1925) has the dubious distinction of being one of only two men in American history to run for President three times and lose each time. Yet Bryan almost certainly qualifies as one of the most influential "losers" in American history, for despite his defeats he retained a large and loyal following that allowed him to remake the Democratic Party in the early twentieth century. The son of a country judge in Salem, Illinois, Bryan was raised in a solidly middle-class family by devoutly religious parents. Bryan attended law school in Chicago and then moved to Lincoln, Nebraska and opened his own law office. From the beginning his good looks, marvelous voice, and gifts as an orator made him into a celebrity in Nebraska. Bryan used these skills to side with the "underdogs" of the Midwestern prairies - the farmers who were being driven into bankruptcy and foreclosure by a worsening economy and a lack of support from the federal government in Washington. In 1890 he was elected to Congress - a rare victory for the Democrats in a Republican state. He soon earned a reputation as a superb speaker with a magnetic voice - and as a controversial foe of the big businesses which controlled both political parties. In the 1890's a nationwide economic depression gave Bryan the chance to seize control of the Democratic Party from its' conservative leaders. At the 1896 Democratic National Convention he gave what is still regarded as one of the greatest political speeches in American history - a ringing defense of farmers and an assault on the "robber barons" of New York's Wall Street. The "Cross of Gold" speech electrified the delegates and earned Bryan, at the age of 36, the presidential nomination. Over the next four months Bryan traveled by train to all parts of the nation, spoke to huge crowds, and basically ran the first modern "liberal" presidential campaign. He pushed for unemployment insurance, social security, government credit for farmers and small businessmen, an end to child labor in factories and coal mines, women's suffrage, and better working conditions for factory workers. Although we take many of these things for granted today, the Republicans and Big Business regarded them as dangerous and a threat to the national economy. They raised record sums of money to defeat Bryan, threatened factory workers with layoffs if they voted for Bryan, and in the end defeated the "Great Commoner" (so-called because of his affinity for the "common people" of America) by a narrow margin. Yet Bryan's heroic campaign allowed him to make the Democrats into the "liberal" party that they are today. In 1900 and 1908 he was again nominated for President by the Democrats - in 1900 he spoke out against American "imperialism" overseas and even uttered warnings that America could not be the world's policeman - a warning that we still argue about today. In 1912 Bryan played THE key role in securing the Democratic nomination for Woodrow Wilson - thus making Wilson President. Bryan served as Wilson's Secretary of State from 1913-1915, during that time he worked tirelessly to keep the USA out of World War One. When Wilson threatened to go to war with Germany in 1915 following the sinking of the British passenger ship Lusitania - a sinking which cost 128 American lives, Bryan resigned as Secretary rather than support a move towards war - a war which Bryan honestly felt would "waste" thousands of American lives. Over the last decade of his life Bryan became a leading spokesman for religious fundamentalism, and a strong opponent of the theory of evolution. In 1925 he made his last dramatic stand as the prosecutor in one of the most famous trials of the twentieth century. John T. Scopes, a biology teacher in the high school of Dayton, Tennessee, was arrested and put on trial for teaching the theory of evolution in violation of a state law forbidding it. The defense hired Clarence Darrow, the nation's most famous trial lawyer (the Johnnie Cochran of his day) and a militant critic of traditional Christian beliefs, to defend Scopes. When Bryan agreed to "battle for the Lord" and lead the prosection, the trial became a national sensation. The trial's climax came when Darrow put Bryan on the witness stand as an "expert" on the Bible and proceeded to ridicule his beliefs, such as that Jonah was swallowed by a great fish, or that Adam and Eve were really the first two humans on the Earth. Although Scopes was found guilty (he never paid the $100 fine), Bryan was so humiliated by Darrow's questioning and so exhausted by the trial that he suddenly died a few days later. Many big-city reporters and editors continued to ridicule Bryan even after his death - they regarded him as an ignorant rural hick with no redeeming qualities. Yet large numbers of people still turned out for his funeral - ordinary, "common" folk who realized how hard Bryan had fought on their behalf, and how much he had sacrificed in their cause. As this book points out, nearly all of the things Bryan fought for have since been enacted into laws, and most of the Democratic Party's great leaders of the past century - from Wilson to FDR to Huey Long to Harry Truman to Adlai Stevenson and Lyndon Johnson - owe Bryan a debt of gratitude for transforming the Democrats into a liberal party. As Truman noted "If it wasn't for Old Bill Bryan, there wouldn't be any liberalism at all in the country now". This biography, while short, is nonetheless an excellent introduction into one of the most influential - and controversial - politicians in American history. ... Read more

Book Description

From the 1930s to the early 1960s civil rights law was made primarily through constitutional litigation. Before Rosa Parks could ignite a Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Supreme Court had to strike down the Alabama law which made segregated bus service required by law; before Martin Luther King could march on Selma to register voters, the Supreme Court had to find unconstitutional the Southern Democratic Party's exclusion of African-Americans; and before the March on Washington and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Supreme Court had to strike down the laws allowing for the segregation of public graduate schools, colleges, high schools, and grade schools.

Making Civil Rights Law provides a chronological narrative history of the legal struggle, led by Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, that preceded the political battles for civil rights. Drawing on interviews with Thurgood Marshall and other NAACP lawyers, as well as new information about the private deliberations of the Supreme Court, Tushnet tells the dramatic story of how the NAACP Legal Defense Fund led the Court to use the Constitution as an instrument of liberty and justice for all African-Americans. He also offers new insights into how the justices argued among themselves about the historic changes they were to make in American society.

Making Civil Rights Law provides an overall picture of the forces involved in civil rights litigation, bringing clarity to the legal reasoning that animated this "Constitutional revolution", and showing how the slow development of doctrine and precedent reflected the overall legal strategy of Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Very informative but dry
This book is a decisive history of Thurgood Marshall's actions and the effects that he had on the civil rights of African-Americans while he worked with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). His successes, failures, and discussions of his effects make it a very informative book. It is quite obvious that the author spent a great amount of time researching his topic of choice. The book is absolutely full of quotes from people of the time and very detailed factual accounts of events. Unfortunately, the content is not written in an extremely appealing matter. It tends to drone on and on about various cases and actions which have no major significance in history nor in the life of Marshall. If you can read through the dry spots, though, its a great book. You can really get a felling for the social climate of the era as well as the thoughts and feelings of Marshall himself. As a research tool, this was definitely the most valuable book I came across. If I was rating this book based on its information it would be an easy five. Ultimately, it is a good book for pleasure reading but not the best. I would have to say that Juan Williams' Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary is the best. If you are interested in Marshall's career, though, you want to look at Tushnet's other book Making Constitutional Law : Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court, 1961-1991. ... Read more

Book Description

A compilation of Washington, DC, attorney Jacob Stein's essays about lawyers, judges, clients, literature, and popular culture. The essays in this volume have previously appeared in Washington Lawyer, American Scholar, the Times Literary Supplement, and Wilson Quarterly. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

"stories that connect lawyers to their ups, downs, fears..."
"Writing in the first person and sounding very much the after-dinner raconteur, Stein tells stories that connect lawyers to their ups, downs, fears, quirks, ironies, history, and even such unlikely subjects as the French Impressionists.What is so refreshing is that, unlike other big-name lawyers in Stein's elevated loft, he is ever the self-effacing narrator and eschews any mention of his own courtroom triumphs. ...What makes this collection so fascinating is that it is not limited to lawyers, judges and courtrooms.Indeed, Stein treats us to a delightful series of essays about such figures as Bing Crosby, Peter Arno, Franz Kafka, George M. Cohan, Somerset Maugham, Winston Churchill, and Ernest Hemingway."

-- Peter D. Baird, Litigation, Fall 2004

Wonderful compilation of essays by Jacob Stein
I've been reading Jacob Stein's essays for many years in the Washington Lawyer.He has put many of his favorites in this very enjoyable book (you can also see many of his essays on the web).

Not all of the essays are about lawyers directly, but most relate to Washington, DC and all are based on his experiences, ranging from literature, through "An Evening with Louis Armstrong" to popular culture.

This is a great gift for anyone who loves the law, Washington,or good writing by a Washington raconteur. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

The best of three books by trial court juges.
I've recently read three books by former trial court judges and Katz's is the best of the three. The other two, Guilty by Harold Rothwaz and Don't Pee on My Leg and Tell Me It's Raining by Judy Sheindlin, are both good at presenting the worst examples from the criminal justice system. Sheindlin was also a family court judge and provides additional stories on problems with the juvenile justice system. Katz, however, does a better job of analysis of the problems. He also covers a broader range of issues that affect the system at various stages during the criminal trial process. ... Read more

Book Description

This book dramatically chronicles the significant events that led Morris Dees to the front lines of the civil rights struggle and his ongoing crusade against hate groups.This is the story of the courageous and often lonely journey of a skilled and controversial trail lawyer whose career has paralleled a nation's struggle to ensure freedom and equality for all its citizens. ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (2)

The more things change...
From the dying days of Russia's Tsarist courts in which the young Kafka sharpened his perception of the absurd, here, similarly is the prophetic voice of a clerk in the blossoming federal judiciary.

Watch carefully over the next decade or so for a similar glimpse behind the curtain of our Oz-esque federal judiciary. The federal bench is a well hidden bastion of intellectual dishonesty and privelege. Coming works of this nature will owe Knox a certain debt. You will read them with a sharper eye for having shared a year with Knox.

After a clerkship ghostwriting for a fat/lazy/corrupt federal district court judge as a "law clerk", this account helped me understand my own mis-steps once I escaped to the saner world of rural criminal defense work.

Our federal courts especially remain a bastion of royalist arrogance. Knox's glimpse should be treasured by anyone encountering the federal courts whether as barrister, litigant or citizen. He speaks a timeless truth against which we are not well armed.

Great on content, just a little dry
If you're the ultimate policy wonk on 2nd Amendment law, you'll want to read this book just for John Knox's insights into the character of Justice McReynolds who wrote the decision in U.S. v. Miller, 1939. Unfortunately, Knox was no longer clerking for McReynolds in 1939, so we miss the inside story on that landmark decision, but after you've read this book you'll better understand why Miller makes so little sense. ... Read more

Book Description

In 1970, Kathy Boudin, revolutionary Weatherman, fled the ruins of a town house on West Eleventh Street in Greenwich Village after a bomb that was being made there exploded, killing three people, and America’s sympathy with radicalism fell apart. The Weathermen had started as angry kids who planted stink bombs and emulated the Black Panthers, but the bomb they were building on Eleventh Street was deadly. Kathy, daughter of the celebrated lawyer Leonard Boudin, third generation of the famous Boudin family, emerged naked from the wreckage, was given some clothes by a neighbor, slipped into the night, and went underground for the next eleven years, her name soon appearing on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List.

Susan Braudy tells the riveting story of the Boudin family circle through four generations. She writes of Kathy Boudin’s childhood, growing up in Manhattan in an ambitious, liberal New York Jewish family, daughter of a revered left-wing labor and civil liberties lawyer and an intellectual poet mother.

Braudy writes of Kathy’s parents; her father, Leonard, who patterned his life after that of his uncle, the great labor lawyer and leftist legal scholar, Louis B. Boudin (in the 1930s he fought in court for new laws to protect and organize labor unions and was one of the foremost translators and interpreters of Karl Marx). Leonard Boudin fought on behalf of dissenters on the left. He argued the cases of Paul Robeson and the two-time convicted spy Judith Coplon before the Supreme Court, forcing the U.S. government to allow free travel to all citizens and preventing the admission of illegally gathered evidence, rulings that crucially curtailed the power of J. Edgar Hoover.

Braudy writes of Boudin’s legal work on behalf of such clients as Rockwell Kent and Julian Bond; his defense of Fidel Castro in connection with his seizure of American capital in Cuba; his case on behalf of Dr. Benjamin Spock (arrested for protesting the Vietnam War; Boudin put the war, not Dr. Spock, on trial); and his case on behalf of Daniel Ellsberg, helping him to leak the Pentagon Papers, which set the stage for Nixon’s resignation.
We see Kathy’s mother, Jean Boudin, poet and intellectual, an orphan taken in by a cultivated Jewish family whose circle included Marc Blitzstein and Clifford Odets; her courtship and marriage to Leonard (they were toasted as “the most gorgeous couple of the left”); her years as the dutiful, devoted wife to a husband who conducted countless affairs; her suicide attempt when Kathy was nine.

And we see Leonard’s lifelong mentor and competitor—his brother-in-law, the brilliant, scrappy independent journalist and government critic I. F. Stone, a born leader and fighter who made war on government bureaucrats (believing they usurped power) and on his deadly enemy, J. Edgar Hoover.

We follow Kathy at Bryn Mawr, organizing the school’s maids to demand fair wages, graduating magna cum laude in the top five of her class; failing to get into Yale Law School (while her brother was a star at Harvard); helping to plan the riots at the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago and the “Days of Rage” that followed; breaking Black Panther Assata Shakur out of jail; bombing the headquarters of the Manhattan Police Department and the Capitol in Washington; and finally, in 1981, being part of the botched robbery of a Brinks truck that turned into a bloodbath (two policemen and one Brinks guard were killed), which resulted in her trial with her father as her lawyer; her years in Bedford Hills prison as a model prisoner, teacher, and AIDS activist—and her release after twenty-two years.

A huge, rich, riveting book—a story of idealism and passion; of law and brilliant legal minds; of political intrigue and government witch-hunts; of SDS and the Days of Rage; of Vietnam protests and underground revolutionary terrorism; and of the golden family at the center of this vortex, who came to be seen through five decades as the very emblem of the American left. ... Read more

Reviews (11)

Fall in the Family!
I found "Family Circle" a richly anecdotal and compelling view of a fascinating and complex family that happened to be at the center of radical politics in the U.S. for four decades. Through the patriarchs -- Louis Boudin and his nephew Leonard, and the clients they represented -- I came away with a vivid, though succinct, history of such celebrated causes as the denial of a passport to Paul Robeson, Daniel Ellsberg's release of the Pentagon Papers, and Benjamin Spock's anti-Vietnam war protests. With Lenoard's brother-in-law Izzy Stone and the mostly leftist New York political and cultural elite of those years in the mix, Braudy deliciously captures their machinations and sexual liaisions.

But it is the author's insightful portrayal of the relationship between Leonard Boudin and his daughter Kathy that nailed me. Why such a well-educated and intellectually gifted young women would turn to violence becomes plausible as Braudy unravels the father-daughter dynamics. Perhaps if Braudy had not known Kathy as a classmate at Bryn Mawr and not had access to a candid Jean Boudin, Kathy's mother, the pyschologizing about father and daughter would not be so convincing. But Braudy's argument that Kathy sought her father's attention against stiff odds -- his workoholism, his appreciation of the legal genious his son was becoming, and his womanizing (which often targeted Kathy's friends) -- is strongly presented. Braudy's analysis shows Kathy's descent into violence as the means to not only implement her radical idealogy but to capture her father's attention, even to eventually becoming the kind of client on which he lavished almost every waking hour.

This book is also a well investigated look at the workings -- and pathology -- of the Weather Underground. Their strange deprivations, harsh self-criticism, and alternating sexual promiscuity and abstinence makes engrossing reading. Braudy effectively exposes Kathy's (and the surfaced Weathermen's) strategy to downplay her role in '70s bombings and in the Black Liberation Army's murderous Brink's robbery of 1981 that resulted in her incarceration. Even if Braudy sees through the revisionism as a platform for Kathy's parole, she is not judgmental. "Family Circle" has the objective eye of a journalist also giving credit to Kathy's enormous personal strengths and leadership and her pioneering good works in prison.

entertaining 60s social history
This story of a leftist/progressive family and their radical daughter is a microcosm of the intertwining social and political trends that helped shape the 60s. Nice insights into family dynamics and generational friction, the search for "authenticity" (black panthers, bomb-making) by white, middle class kids, and a glimpse of what life was like among the radical fringe. For a West Coast take on the same period, look at Peter Coyote's "Sleeping Where I fall." Both explore the confluence of the personal and the political in a volatile era.

Her treachery resulted in the killing of two policemen
I enjoyed reading this book very much, and recommend it to all readers. It was a fascinating look at Kathy Boudin and those radical student leftists known as the Weather Underground who declared war on America in protest to the Vietnam War.

Kathy Boudin's treachery resulted in the killing of two policemen, for which she served 22 years in prison. That may not matter to the leftist readers who have given this finely written book low ratings. Ignore their hateful rantings, and judge for yourself how a bright young woman of privledge could make such a bad choice to pursue terrorist goals.

Kathy left her baby with a sitter to drive a getaway van full of Black Panthers who robbed a Brink's armored truck, and actually expected to return on time to pick up her child! Instead, she was captured after the two policemen were killed, and her child was abandoned.

The picture on p. 353 of one of the Weathermen stomping on an American flag gives the reader an indication that these radical leftists have no remorse for their past behavior.

There is ample material on the internet concerning how leftists were able to get Kathy released on parole in 2003. Her victims left behind families that will never forget her treachery.

Interesting subject, badly written book
This book has all the flaws of a poorly written biography - unsubstantiated claims to understanding characters' thoughts and motivations, lots of irrelevant details, broad generalizations, inferences treated as facts, and amateur-psychologist diagnoses. Perhaps with serious editing, this could be a decent book. As it is, learning about the people and the times keeps me going, though my annoyance at the author's careless approach to a serious story makes me want to stop. I am not surprised Kathy Boudin did not cooperate.

Pooly Written & Poorly Researched
It's a shame such an interesting and important story should be so awkwardly written and so badly researched. I'm waiting for another author to carefully write the book that this period of time in our history deserves. There are so many inaccuracies in time and place that one cannot trust the writer. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

More than a biography of Miller
Justice of Shattered Dreams is a well-balanced blend of history, law, economics and biography. The author provides a succinct and well-written summary of such topics as popular sovereignty, the tension over the Kansas/Nebraska issue, the recalcitrance of the South during Reconstruction, and the legal battles between capitalist bondholders and small town populists. Ross, who has a J.D. from Duke, provides insightful legal summaries of Dred Scott, Ex Parte Merryman, the Prize cases, Ex parte Milligan, the Legal Tender cases, as well as the Slaughterhouse cases for which Miller is most remembered. Ross's analysis of Ex Parte Milligan resonates today vis-a-vis the legal arguments over the status of the internees at Guantanamo Bay. There is just enough legal analysis to explain the theory of the decisions without overpowering the non-lawyer reader, and just enough facts to convey the essence of the case and its background.

The book is interesting because it is not a true biography of a Supreme Court justice. It blends the economic background and the societal tensions that were present during Miller's lifetime. Additionally, Ross makes some very good points on Reconstruction and reinforces why Reconstruction, in some ways, was just as decisive as slavery in fracturing the country - a legacy that continues today much to the dismay of the modern Democratic party. Ross's analysis of how railroads and railroad bridges destroyed the small western towns is very informative; again, Ross provides a good, cogent synopsis of an economic issue. Overall, this is an interesting and informative book that ties together divergent strands of history and presents a cohesive snapshot of our country between the 1850's and 1870's. ... Read more

Book Description

In this powerful memoir about three generations of New York City policemen, Brian McDonald chronicles a hundred years of dedication, disillusion, heroism, and tragedy behind the blue wall of silence that separates a cop from the rest of the world. His grandfather, Thomas Skelly, entered the department in 1893, when the NYPD was little more than a brutal gang of organized enforcers and Tammany Hall a corrupt political machine that could make or break an honest cop's career. His father Frank's career would span World War II through the 1960s, taking him from street cop to squad commander of the Forty-first Precinct. Better known as "Fort Apache," it was a place from which few cops emerged whole. His brother Frank McDonald, Jr., went on to become a decorated officer, waging an undercover war on drugs and crime. From turn-of-the-century Brooklyn to the South Bronx in the 1970s to the bedroom communities of upstate New York, My Father's Gun combines a rare andintimate family story with turbulent social history.

"A dramatic memoir of three generations of Irish American police officers . . . Haunting." --The New York Times Book Review

"A rich and riveting narrative . . . Nuanced, colorful, frank, free of all the usual cop clichs." --Newsday ... Read more

Reviews (17)

A great summer read that has "legs": it stays with you.
Mr. McDonald gives an honest, interesting and downright moving account of three generations of NYC policemen and their stories warts and all. It is done with humor and more importantly good solid writing. The book reads like a fine tale but brings you into the history of Mr. McDonalds' family their failures and successes. It is a wonderful summer read, for those who enjoy a bit of soul searching, fathers, crime and punishment but more importantly the American Dream. The pages turn quickly. I look forward to his next book.

100 years in the NYPD
Anyone who ever wondered what it was like to be a cop in New York City should read this book. The author is steeped in police tradition -- his grandfather, father and brother all wore the badge. The book is particularly interesting because of the view it provides of life in New York over the past 100 years.

Brian McDonald's grandfather, son of Irish immigrants, joined the New York City police department in 1893. He was there during the height of Tammany Hall. He walked a beat as a patrolman and then rose quickly to seargent. He and his descendants each enjoyed the life of a copy and suffered because of bureaucracy, favoritism and the changing nature of the city.

In a way the story of these 3 generations is an excuse to tell the story of the NYC police department and the city it served. Though not a disciplined or complete history, this book quite effectively creates an anecdotal portrait that gives the reader a peek into a time and place not generally accessible.

Outstanding Glimpse into a Police Family
Totally engrossing and well-written,My Father's Gun provides an excellent glimpse into a family that has served in the NYPD for three generations. It documents not just the lives of cops at work but also the often difficult and stressful home lives of their families. An excellent book for anyone considering a career in law enforcement and for anyone who appreciates good writing. Highly recommended

Moving
I came to appreciate the difficulties of being an honest and good NYPD cop.
This book helped me realize that all the heroic things cops do are ignored by the media, while the few mistakes are constantly highlighted.
Since 9/11 the media and the liberal left have improved somewhat, but not enough.
The courage and selflessness required to be a NYPD cop are amazing. While the NYPD is not above criticism, I think much of the criticism is misplaced, misleading and a result of misunderstanding.
I dare Al Sharpton to read this book -- maybe it could expand his world view a little bit more.

enjoyable, interesting
As a member of NYPD, I have heard alot of talk on this book. also living in Rockland county,(also where the author lived) I can relate to differents points of interest in the book. I living a civil service family life, can compare the different aspects of "the job". My father being an officer of FDNY, me being the first cop. This books goes from the changes in the dept. through scandals and also working now shows what things havent changed. I highly recomend this book to anyone not just cops, it puts in perspective a cops life and what the family endures also. Once you start reading it is a hard book to stop reading, it isn't hard reading the book flows very smooth. I am not reader and for me to read a complete book is good. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Very Boring
This book is very boring. This book neither works as a biography nor as legal journalism.

Raggio's life story is boring. Louise Raggio had a unremarkable and typical early 20th century life. The only exciting fact is that Grier Raggio her husband was accused of "unamerican activities" and was Lee Harvey Oswald's appointed attorney for several hours. Otherwise the stories of Louise Raggio growing up on a farm, going to college, getting her first job are tedious and without literary merit.

As legal journalism, it is way too high level. There are no specific legislative stories, no landmark legal battles, no interesting legal cases. If Raggio revolutionized Texas family law it is not documented in this book.

I would not recommend this book.

Texas Tornado??
I thought that Colin Edwards was the Texas Tornado?? MotoGP ring a bell!?? Good Luck at Brno CEII!! This book on women's rights is great by the way, except for they shouldn't have any!! ;) For the guys on the Drizunken forum!

Texas Tornado
The book is not only a rich history of the fight for women's rights in Texas and the US but a wonderful look into the life of an incredible woman. The story is told with such warmth that you end up loving this tough, spunky, little woman. The book is a must read for every lawyer in the state of Texas while also a wonderful example of a dedicated wife (under often horrid circumstances) and a devoted mother.
Louise Raggio is definitely a Texas Tornado. ... Read more

Book Description

When Bill Douglas was a child, he nearly died of infantile paralysis. To build back the strength in his wasted legs, he started hiking through the sage-covered foothills around his home in Yakima, Washington. The cure worked; and year by year he pushed his explorations further into the tangled, rugged mountains of the Pacific Northwest.

Of Men and Mountains is a book of personal adventure and discovery - an account of the way Douglas and other men managed to find a richer life in the mountains, and how they found something else besides. Its pages are filled with the stories of the sheepherders, Native Americans, fishermen, and foresters who learned to survive in the wilderness, to enjoy it, and to learn the secret of the true serenity of spirit. ... Read more

Reviews (10)

Indianapolis native identifies with experiences of author
As a counseling psychologist who has been surprised by the number of unexplainable experiences that can occur during a therapy session, I found Captain Snow's book to be astounding. His analysis of a past life, and the time and effort taken to review both the reliability and validity of his research methods will help many skeptics to reform biases against the existence of reincarnation.

I wish the author would have shared more about his relationships with both his wife and Carroll's wife - though we are told that his wife is a skeptic, I find it hard to believe that she could reject her husband's evidence after years of research.

A thoroughly good book and a nice introduction to the area of reincarnation and the field of past life regression therapy.

Phenomenal Research
I was amazed at the length Captian Snow went to prove he, himself, had lived a past life as portrait painter Carroll Beckwith. Being a dective gave the author added diligence and preseverance in researching every detail of his regression to discover who this painter was.

Unlike the book Search for Grace: A True Story of Reincarnation by Bruce Goldberg which I found lacking in research Captain Snow leaves no detail untouched. Author Goldberg's book was interesting but in cannot compare to this indepth look at reincarnation.

Because of the author's painstaking research I found this book fascinating and hard to put down. The author also includes many pictures of Carroll Beckwith's paintings which added to the powerful image of this man having actually lived and died years before Captain Snow was born.

I was not, in any way, concerned with the fact that the author did not get the wife's name correct. Having read many other accounts of reincarnation this happens often. Names do not seem as important once a soul has left this realm of existence.

I highly recommend this book for those interested in past life regression or for those who may want more proof of its existence.

a Past Life book for skeptics
If you're skeptical about past life regressions, this would be a good book for you. The author started out as more of a skeptic than me, and possibly more so as you as well. He dealt with te information he received in a reading, like any detective in his place would. He went and looked at the data. Admittedly, he was doing so to disprove that what he had seen was a past life. After a point, when he hadn't found anything to disprove what he had seen, and numerous points that in fact confirmed what he had seen, he finally came to believe it had been a past life.

Put This Book on Your List !
This book was really fascinating! I'd like to address the reviewer above about the writing ability of the author. It was written beautifully, and from his heart! It had my interest from the minute I read the first page. I find it totally believable and thank the author for writing his story, because alot of people might think him crazy. Well, he's hardly that, and this is an amazing story worth reading. Don't miss out on this one.

The research was wonderful, however...
The research was wonderful, however the writing style made it very difficult for me to get through. The content is worth the repetitions and unpolished style. ... Read more

Book Description

U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas served on the Court for 36 years. He wrote more opinions and more dissents than any other Justice. Douglas was described as an invigorating presence on the Court and possessed unusual stamina, an unyielding will, and enormous courage.

Douglas's achievements on and off the Court were astonishing. He was an adventurer, jurist, and environmentalist, whose writings and actions impacted the country for many years. He was also a hiker and climber. He organized hikes and other actions to protect the C&O Canal near Washington, D.C., Olympic Beach and Glacier Peak in Washington State, the Buffalo River in Arkansas, and areas along the Appalachian Trail. He was a prophet, visionary, pioneer, scout, and pathfinder. In reading The Footpaths of Justice William O. Douglas: A Legacy of Place, one accepts Douglas's invitation to hike with him, to visit a place with him...and to "join him in a process of discovery and affirmation that is available to a free people in a spacious land."

Book Description

A warrior with a woman's heart

After abandoning her lifelong goal of becoming an actress, a young Rikki Klieman approached a former professor for advice about her future.

"How about that First Amendment course?" he asked her. "You did very well."

"I loved that course. That was my favorite course in college!"

"Why don't you think about going to law school?"

She had never given it a moment's thought. "Girls don't go to law school," she told him.

"No, but women do."

From there, it was just a little more than a decade until a thirty-five-year-old Rikki was named one of America's top five female trial attorneys by Time magazine for her work in criminal defense, one of the toughest branches of law for a woman to enter.

She defended clients ranging from accused drug smugglers to media moguls to well-meaning Christian Scientists Ginger and David Twitchell, whose beliefs were put on trial after the death of their child. She waged a war of nerves with Boston police and the FBI during negotiations for the return of fugitive sixties radical Katherine Ann Power.

As Rikki moved from success to success, however, the frenetic lifestyle of a defense attorney began to damage her health and happiness. She suffered from exhaustion, chronic back pain, and two failed marriages, but considered these afflictions to be part of "the price of the prize." After several decades as a practicing attorney, she joined Court TV, where she gained national prominence covering the O.J. Simpson trial and she went on to host Court TV's daily show Both Sides.

Now, at midlife, this warrior with a woman's heart has finally achieved, in her loving marriage to LAPD chief Bill Bratton, the balance many seek but few find. Her dramatic story proves that fairy tales can come true and that great love and great success can go hand in hand.

Reviews (29)

One of the best memoirs of a professional woman EVER.
If you want to get a sense of "the price of the prize" -- the sacrifices that today's leading professional women have paid for success in their careers -- then don't miss Rikki Klieman's candid and revealing memoir FAIRY TALES CAN COME TRUE. This Court TV anchor was once named one of America's top five women lawyers by Time Magazine, and traveled a circuitous route (through a number of jobs, not to mention two failed marriages and several affairs) to finally achieve happiness in her career and "true love" as the wife of LAPD Chief William Bratton.

What I love about this book is that it is so refreshingly honest. The author is not modest about her assets, nor shy about leveraging them to get to where she wants to go. Her candor, which other reviewers here appear to have found boastful, is refreshing to those of us who have also experienced the trials and tribulations of being a talented woman in a man's world. And her lessons are instructive to anyone who is ambitious and curious how one successful woman managed to maneuver her way to the top of not only the legal profession, but any male-dominated arena.

I loved this book!!
FAIRY TALES CAN COME TRUE: How a Driven Woman Changed Her Destiny by Court TV anchor and top trial attorney Rikki Klieman is an exceptional memoir of an exceptional woman.

At the age of 35, Rikki was named one of America's top five female trial attorneys by TIME magazine for her work in criminal defense, one of the toughest branches of law for women to enter.

She defended clients ranging from accused drug smugglers to media moguls to well-meaning Christian Scientists Ginger and David Twitchell, whose beliefs were put on trial after the death of their dhild. She waged a war of nerves with Boston police and the FBI during negotiations for the return of fugitive '60s radical Katherine Ann Power.

While Rikki's exploits in the law are impressive, what is even more so is her willingness to share, openly and candidly, what a painful toll her successes took on her health and happiness. She recounts her exhaustion, her chronic back pain, and fwo failed marriages, reflecting on these as simply "the price of the prize" or the price successful women sometimes pay for their career success.

She went on to become an anchor on Court TV, where she first came to my attention while covering the O.J. Simpson trial and impressed me with her brains, her guts, her words, and her point of view. She comes across like the "warrior with a woman's heart" as she is described on the jacket of this special book.

After being impressed with the Rikki Klieman I saw on TV, I felt even more privileged to get to know her trials and tribulations through these pages. Her candid look back at her career and life are an inspiration to younger women with more of both ahead of us. I feel lucky to have the benefit of this counselor's wise counsel. I absolutely loved this book.

one sad person
Rikki Klieman is not much of a writer and less of a person. There is nothing here of interest or value.

Interesting .....sort of.... NOT A FAIRY TALE!!!
In this book I found an enlightening story about the struggle to get to the top. A great description of the amount of dedication and self-sacrifice necessary to overcome obstacles, define (and redefine) goals, and to never stop moving forward. For any young woman looking to see what it takes to get to the top of her respective field, this is a wonderful story-if it is taken with a grain of salt. Even though Mrs. Klieman seems to find strength in her struggle in a man's world, she digresses to hypocrisy and to being just like a man more than she gives herself credit for.
You can call her a slut, or a liberated woman (that's the way it was in the 70s according to her). You can call her driven, or you can call her obsessed to a fault. You can say she is focused, or you can say that she ignores what fails to progress her theme-she is a good lawyer after all.
She writes that she never wanted to be placed ahead because she was a woman. But in one part of the book she calls a judge who also happened to be her ex (they dated while she was CLERKING!!)so that he could get her an interview with someone she otherwise would have had to wait months to see. This is just one example of many sordid situations. She is appalled when she is passed up for a judgeship because, according to her, she was too pretty. Yet there is clear evidence that she uses her looks just as much as she uses her brains. She also seems to think she is a super good-looking lady. She mentions it so, so, so many times it starts to get ridiculous!!! (is it just me, or is she not really that hot?)
In the book she was an alcoholic, a workaholic, vomited involuntarily on a weekly basis, was someone who couldn't carry on a relationship, never had kids, and basically admits to cheating on her husband (and wonders why he didn't want to have anything to do with the book). She had no life outside of the law. The best years of her life went to her clients. I thought the point was work to live, not live to work. She does the latter, incessantly. If she were a man, her life wouldn't be that remarkable. She had a part to play in every major obstacle she faced in life-she did it to herself. So many people throughout the book helped her that it's hard to believe she is self-made in the true sense. But the biggest gripe is the fact that she did not find happiness until AFTER she stopped practicing law. Her life during her years of practice totally sucked-I'm not sure what message that is supposed to send. If this is how you want to get to the top, be my guest.

Another milestone for women lawyers.
Harvard Law School celebrates its 50th year of admitting women with a three day program, featuring Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Attorney General Janet Reno.

We begin our 30th year of practicing law today -- we have no idea where the time went. It really flew.

Our law school class had some 200 students, 11 of whom were women. Women now make up 50% or more of law school classes around the country.

We'd like to see more women criminal defense lawyers in private practice -- this field remains very much male-dominated.

To get a real inside glimpse of the hurdles women defense lawyers face -- and the degree of determination needed to suceed, we highly recommend defense lawyer-turned Court TV anchor Rikki Klieman's new book, Fairy Tales Can Come True: How a Driven Woman Changed Her Destiny.

We describe the book on CrimeLynx as "a riveting, brutally honest memoir by celebrated criminal trial attorney and Court TV Anchor Rikki Klieman, in which she details not only her triumphs as a pioneer in the male-dominated arena of criminal defense, but the price she paid for success -- and the toll it took on her personal life and physical health. The book becomes filled with spirit and joy, however, as Rikki describes falling in love in middle age and learning that she can have it all." ... Read more

Book Description

John Marshall remains one of the towering figures in the landscape of American law. From the Revolution to the age of Jackson, he played a critical role in defining the "province of the judiciary" and the constitutional limits of legislative action. In this masterly study, Charles Hobson clarifies the coherence and thrust of Marshall's jurisprudence while keeping in sight the man as well as the jurist.

Hobson argues that contrary to his critics, Marshall was no ideologue intent upon appropriating the lawmaking powers of Congress. Rather, he was deeply committed to a principled jurisprudence that was based on a steadfast devotion to a "science of law" richly steeped in the common law tradition. As Hobson shows, such jurisprudence governed every aspect of Marshall's legal philosophy and court opinions, including his understanding of judicial review.

The chief justice, Hobson contends, did not invent judicial review (as many have claimed) but consolidated its practice by adapting common law methods to the needs of a new nation. In practice, his use of judicial review was restrained, employed almost exclusively against acts of the state legislatures. Ultimately, he wielded judicial review to prevent the states from undermining the power of a national government still struggling to establish sovereignty at home and respect abroad.

No chief justice and only one associate justice (William Douglas) served longer on the Supreme Court. But, as Hobson clearly shows, Marshall's deserved place in the pantheon of great American jurists rests far more upon principles than longevity. This book better than any other tells us why that's true and worthy of our attention. ... Read more