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Brandeis: A Free Man's Life
When Louis D. Brandeis, son of immigrants, died in 1941, he had long been a revered and influential public figure, and had spent the last twenty-three years of a great career as a Justice of the United States Supreme Court. This first full-scale biography gives us the authoritative record; it gives us also a personal appraisal of his character, the influences that shaped him, and the impress that he made on law and life.
The author has followed his separate activities through each of the four main periods of his life. First, he is the practicing attorney in Boston, engaged in such famous New England battles as the street railways contest, the fight for savings-bank life insurance, the notorious New Haven Railway affair, and the United Shoe Machinery case. Next, as an attorney on the national scene, he figures in the public-land controversies of the Taft regime, in the role of arbiter for the garment trades, in the railroad freight-rate cases, and in anti-trust activities. The third period takes him onto the political stage, first with La Follette Progressivism, then finding his captain in Wilson and becoming an adviser and spokesman for the Administration, while he reaches out to larger horizons with his great work on behalf of Zionism.
Finally comes the period of fulfillment and public service on the Court—helping t shape the Court's understanding of its own powers, working single-mindedly towards an application of law based on fact and democratic needs rather than on rigid precedent, and seeing his efforts rewarded in the Court's later history. (A significant chapter in this section is called "Holes and Brandeis Dissenting.")
The story of the Court confirmation fight, one of the bitterest battles in our political history, comes out with political force. In recording that episode—and indeed throughout the book—the author has been able to present all essential facts, so that the record is clear. But he never loses sight of the larger meaning in relation to personal character, to the law, and to the processes of democracy in America, The ambiguities of Brandeis's nature become understandable; he emerges as a true "conservative" seeking to preserve the good by continual adaptation, and as a living embodiment of the free man's struggle for the Right.
The author has followed his separate activities through each of the four main periods of his life. First, he is the practicing attorney in Boston, engaged in such famous New England battles as the street railways contest, the fight for savings-bank life insurance, the notorious New Haven Railway affair, and the United Shoe Machinery case. Next, as an attorney on the national scene, he figures in the public-land controversies of the Taft regime, in the role of arbiter for the garment trades, in the railroad freight-rate cases, and in anti-trust activities. The third period takes him onto the political stage, first with La Follette Progressivism, then finding his captain in Wilson and becoming an adviser and spokesman for the Administration, while he reaches out to larger horizons with his great work on behalf of Zionism.
Finally comes the period of fulfillment and public service on the Court—helping t shape the Court's understanding of its own powers, working single-mindedly towards an application of law based on fact and democratic needs rather than on rigid precedent, and seeing his efforts rewarded in the Court's later history. (A significant chapter in this section is called "Holes and Brandeis Dissenting.")
The story of the Court confirmation fight, one of the bitterest battles in our political history, comes out with political force. In recording that episode—and indeed throughout the book—the author has been able to present all essential facts, so that the record is clear. But he never loses sight of the larger meaning in relation to personal character, to the law, and to the processes of democracy in America, The ambiguities of Brandeis's nature become understandable; he emerges as a true "conservative" seeking to preserve the good by continual adaptation, and as a living embodiment of the free man's struggle for the Right.
- GenresBiography
713 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1946
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About the author
Alpheus Thomas Mason
43 booksA specialist in the American Constitution and the author of several judicial biographies, Alpheus Thomas Mason was McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence Emeritus at Princeton University. He received his BA from Dickinson College in 1920 and his PhD from Princeton University in 1923, and he taught at Princeton from 1925 until his retirement in 1968.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 12, 2020
Louis D. Brandeis (1856-1941) was one of the great figures in American jurisprudence. Look at a
picture of him and he looks like he came straight from Ollympus with all kinds of wisdom to impart.
Maybe an Old Testament prophet. In fact Franklin D. Roosevelt called affectionately 'old Isaiah'.
The Brandeis's came from what is now the Czech Republic then referred to as Bohemia. Louis was
the youngest of five children and a child prodigy. He was given a good education which included his
high school years in Germany. He went to Harvard and Harvard Law and practiced first in St.Louis
and then Boston.
From the start Brandeis didn't go for small cases. You can't picture this man at magistrate's court
looking grubbing for criminal cases. He was involved in big issues from the start. He was opposed
to monopoly of any kind. He took on Boston Transportation, the New Haven railroad and the Life
Insurance industry among others.
If Brandeis had never served on the Supreme Court Brandeis would be remembered for three things
An article in the Harvard Law Review where he said a right to privacy was in the Constitution and
his reasoning there became the basis for many future landmark Supreme Court cases. From his
work investigating the life insurance, Brandeis is responsible for the idea of Savings Bank Life Insurance
helping a lot of working class families. Finally he invented and popularized the 'Brandeis Brief'.
This was the notion that you brought statistics, expert testimony from various fields to show how
a given law impacts on people. The various school segregation cases that were combined into the
famous Brown vs. Board of Education where such information was in the brief led to the Supreme
Court desegregating schools is the best example of the Brandeis brief in action.
Woodrow Wilson appointed Brandeis in 1916 to the Supreme Court. It was a controversial appointment with the forces of anti-Semitism and reaction weighing in against the appointment.
It was a most partisan confirmation vote with only 3 Republicans for and one Democrat against.
Brandeis served from 1916 until 1939 when ill health forced his resignation. Among other things
he was involved in was Zionism and the creation of Israel. It would have been good if he had
lived to see Israel born in 1948. But he would have also seen the concentration camps liberated as
well and that would have sickened his civilized soul.
Alpheus Mason's book has been superseded by other work on Brandeis. Still this is a good start
in getting to know the man. He was worth knowing.
picture of him and he looks like he came straight from Ollympus with all kinds of wisdom to impart.
Maybe an Old Testament prophet. In fact Franklin D. Roosevelt called affectionately 'old Isaiah'.
The Brandeis's came from what is now the Czech Republic then referred to as Bohemia. Louis was
the youngest of five children and a child prodigy. He was given a good education which included his
high school years in Germany. He went to Harvard and Harvard Law and practiced first in St.Louis
and then Boston.
From the start Brandeis didn't go for small cases. You can't picture this man at magistrate's court
looking grubbing for criminal cases. He was involved in big issues from the start. He was opposed
to monopoly of any kind. He took on Boston Transportation, the New Haven railroad and the Life
Insurance industry among others.
If Brandeis had never served on the Supreme Court Brandeis would be remembered for three things
An article in the Harvard Law Review where he said a right to privacy was in the Constitution and
his reasoning there became the basis for many future landmark Supreme Court cases. From his
work investigating the life insurance, Brandeis is responsible for the idea of Savings Bank Life Insurance
helping a lot of working class families. Finally he invented and popularized the 'Brandeis Brief'.
This was the notion that you brought statistics, expert testimony from various fields to show how
a given law impacts on people. The various school segregation cases that were combined into the
famous Brown vs. Board of Education where such information was in the brief led to the Supreme
Court desegregating schools is the best example of the Brandeis brief in action.
Woodrow Wilson appointed Brandeis in 1916 to the Supreme Court. It was a controversial appointment with the forces of anti-Semitism and reaction weighing in against the appointment.
It was a most partisan confirmation vote with only 3 Republicans for and one Democrat against.
Brandeis served from 1916 until 1939 when ill health forced his resignation. Among other things
he was involved in was Zionism and the creation of Israel. It would have been good if he had
lived to see Israel born in 1948. But he would have also seen the concentration camps liberated as
well and that would have sickened his civilized soul.
Alpheus Mason's book has been superseded by other work on Brandeis. Still this is a good start
in getting to know the man. He was worth knowing.
April 2, 2008
Louis Brandeis deserves a first rate biographer because his life story is amazing. Lawyer, crusader for labor and against the trusts, zionist, Supreme Court justice. But this is not the book it shold have been. Plodding.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews