The Story of My Life

by Clarence Darrow

In The Story of My Life Darrow recounts, & reflects on, his more than fifty years as a corporate, labor & criminal lawyer, including the most celebrated & notorious cases of his day: establishing the legal right of a union to strike in the Woodworkers' Conspiracy Case; exposing, on behalf of the United Mine Workers, the shocking conditions in the mines & the widespread use of child labor; defending Leopold & Loeb in the Chicago "thrill" murder case; defending a teacher's right to present the Darwinian theory of evolution in the famous Scopes trial; fighting racial hatred in the Sweet anti-Negro & the Scottsboro cases; & much more. Written in his disarming, conversational style, & full of refreshingly relevant views on capital punishment, civil liberties & the judicial system, Darrow's autobiography is a fitting final summation of a remarkable life.

Genres: Law, Biography, History, Nonfiction, Biography Memoir, Memoir, Autobiography

511 pages, Paperback

Published August 22, 1996

About the author

in 1857, Clarence Darrow, later dubbed "Attorney for the Damned" and "the Great Defender," was born. For a time he lived in an Ohio home that had served as a stop on the Underground Railroad. His father was known as the "village infidel." Darrow attended the University of Michigan Law School for one year, then passed the bar in 1878 and moved to Chicago. There he joined protests against the trumped-up charges against four radicals accused in the Haymarket Riot case. Darrow became corporate counsel to the City of Chicago, then counsel for the North Western Railway. He quit this lucrative post when he could no longer defend their treatment of injured workers, then went on to defend without pay Socialist striker Eugene V. Debs. In 1907, Darrow successfully defended labor activist "Big Bill" Haywood, charged with assassinating a former governor. His passionate denunciation of the death penalty prompted him to defend the famous killers, Loeb and Leopold, who received life sentences in 1924.

His most celebrated case was the Scopes Trial, defending teacher John Scopes in Dayton, Tenn., who was charged with the crime of teaching evolution in the public schools. Darrow's brilliant cross-examination of prosecuting attorney William Jennings Bryan lives on in legal history. During the trial, Darrow said: "I do not consider it an insult, but rather a compliment to be called an agnostic. I do not pretend to know where many ignorant men are sure—that is all that agnosticism means." Darrow wrote many freethought articles and edited a freethought collection. His two appealing autobiographies are The Story of My Life (1932), containing his plainspoken views on religion, and Farmington (1932). He also wrote Resist Not Evil (1902), An Eye for An Eye (1905), and Crime, Its Causes and Treatments (1925). His freethought writings are collected into Why I Am an Agnostic and Other Essays. He told The New York Times, "Religion is the belief in future life and in God. I don't believe in either" (April 19, 1936). D. 1938.

More: http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects...

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/monkeytr...

http://darrow.law.umn.edu/index.php?

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/...

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history...

Reviews

[Humza Hussain · Rating 5 out of 5]

At times this book was absolutely brilliant. Darrow writes his biography so poetically and carefully, weighing every single word that he puts down. His insights on the society's bloodthirst for criminals and our desire to punish and torture people who we feel are "bad" are profound. The most significant takeaway for me after reading this book is the way Darrow juxtaposes the manner in which a physician treats an ill person by examining the cause of their illness with the way that the justice system looks only at the manifestation of these causes and "treats" the criminal based on their crime and completely disregards the reasons that they committed it.

This book is important in many ways. Aside from being the perspective of one of the most important criminal lawyers in history, it offers unique insights on religion, society, war and the increase of State violence during times of conflict, science and justice. At times Darrow seemed to be rambling and losing sight of the purpose of certain chapters, overall he achieves his goal of simply offering one man's thoughts on the world around him.

I recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand why criminal defense lawyers choose the work they do, or for anyone else for that matter because although our natural instincts ask us to hate and demonize the criminal, Darrow teaches us to humanize and love every person, and that we are all essentially heading towards the same end, together.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came to this book with the idea Clarence Darrow charged into the darkness with Commander Spock at his left shoulder; the Power of the Enlightenment in his right hand; and Darwin’s bulldog at his side. His autobiography made him seem much more human than that. He picked a side of history and fought for it vigorously, but his barbs at those on the other side were fairly gentle. I am proud to be a member of his profession.

[Nicole R · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was required reading for my Social Justice class, and I was actually pretty excited to read it. Darrow is a famous legal figure and I was primarily familiar with him because of his defense of John Scopes in the "Scopes Monkey Trial." I was pretty disappointed in the book, but I did learn a lot about Darrow.

I had no idea how many major cases Darrow had been a part of! Everything including defending coal miners during a strike for better working conditions, men accused of murder despite not fitting any of the facts of the crime except being black, men pulled into large espionage rings after WWI under the guise of national security, teachers who discussed evolution, and many others. It really is an impressive list with a high success rate.

A later biographer described Darrow as the "attorney for the damned," and that is pretty accurate. Darrow believed fully that every life was worth defending and he was a staunch opponent of the death penalty, which is why he took on many cases where the defendant was clearly guilty. In fact, Darrow actually seems to not believe in any kind of penalty. He believed that fate and destiny completely controls our lives and that we are helpless to change our course or make different decisions. So, because we have no option, we cannot be held responsible for our actions. I thought a lot of it was b.s. I firmly agree that background and circumstances have a vast impact on the course of someone's life, but I do not believe that it replaces free will.

I also thought he was borderline racist/sexist. Maybe more than borderline. He stated that he had not problems with blacks or other minorities, but it could not be helped that white men were just better. He painted minority defendants with the brush of guilt but gushed about how white defendants were justified in their actions.

The writing just had this tone of superiority and ego that did not sit right with me. Then, on top of that, must of the second half (at least the last third) delved into these philosophical ramblings on religion and travel and education and the penal system. It was just odd. And freaking boring. And self-indulgent. Even though the rest of the book was more focused on cases and his legal/political work, he rarely focused on the circumstances surrounding the case, the facts, or the outcome, but instead it was this very skewed view. I took many grains of salt with this book.

But, none of those things detract from the fact that he did defend both the innocent and the guilty in hundreds of cases during his time. He was the most famous lawyer of his time, and he was one of the greatest orators that the legal field has probably ever seen. He worked for over 50 years on big cases and small ones, and helped as many people as he could. He is etched in history.

Most of all, this book made me want to read something about him that is biographical in nature and more objective. Perhaps Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned.

Bottom line: read about Darrow and learn about this important historical figure. But don't get the information from the horses mouth.

[Ryan Lenney · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this book eight years ago after seeing it on a list of things to read if you wanted to go to law school. I’m not sure why I was looking at such a list in my freshman year of high school, or how this book found its way on to that list, but I needed a summer read and it was on my shelf back home so here we are.

The beginning of the book is a bit existential. Otherwise mundane chapters about Darrow’s early childhood and upbringing are peppered with lines like: “It is obvious that I had nothing to do with getting born. Had I known about life in advance and been given any choice in the matter, I mostly likely would have declined the adventure.” Reading that quote at the beginning of an autobiography is a bit like if you went to see a movie and the prequels had a clip of the director saying, “if I’d known how this was going to turn out, I never would have picked up the script.”

Things get interesting a few chapters in when Darrow starts writing about the cases that made him a household name, Eugene v. Debbs etc. I forget how closely intertwined our country’s history is with the struggle of labor unions (and their nihilistic lawyers), and I appreciated the reminder. Still, Darrow leaves out most of the legal specifics, instead providing the reader with tantalizing summations like this one: “There is neither time nor space for going into the details for the trial, but it was about as interesting and remarkable as any case I have ever figured.” Funny that there was, however, ample time and space for a chapter about his year-long European vacation.

Towards the end of the book, Darrow launches into a tirade against prohibitionists. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure I would have been pissed about the 18th Amendment too, but he seems to go a bit far with lines like: “The people of the world have suffered all sorts of torture in the dark ages of the past; they have been chained and fettered in dungeons [several more types of torture removed for brevity]; but in spite of all the cruelties of the past, it has been left for the prohibitionist to commit the final outrage against justice and humanity.” He would have killed in the CMC academic senate.

The final 100 pages of the book contain Darrow’s thoughts on everything from the European pace of life to capital punishment. The only thing I got from them was a reminder of why I stopped reading philosophy books. As Darrow himself put it, “when an old man sits down to tell what he has seen and felt, and maybe done, he rambles on and on as though the whole world were listening to his voice.” I mean hey, at least he’s self aware.

All things considered, I found this book to be worth reading. A chapter here and there can be skipped, but on the whole it’s a compelling story of a (mostly) unassuming man who did what he could to steer his country in a better direction. Considering all he was able to accomplish in the face of bigotry and backwards thinking (to say nothing of the anti-beer fanatics), I found Darrow’s life an encouraging example of what might be done in our own times.

[Eric_W · Rating 5 out of 5]

Darrow reflects on a life devoted to public service and to defense of civil liberties, and to the rights of the unpopular and indigent to a fair trial. He comments at length on crime and punishment, and his proposals are as germane today as they were 60 years ago.
The Haywood trial is a useful paradigm for Darrow's activities. Ex-governor Steunenberg of Idaho was killed, allegedly because of his repressive actions during a bitter coal mining strike. Two leaders of the coal mining union, William Haywood and Charles Moyer, were accused of masterminding the killing. They could not be legally extradited from Colorado to Idaho because they were nowhere near Idaho when the bombing occurred, so they were illegally kidnapped by police agents who forced them into Idaho where Darrow defended them brilliantly, ultimately leading to their acquittal.
Darrow was constantly defending victims of governmental abuse of power. Prohibition provided lots of business. Excessive punishment became the order of the day. (A woman in Michigan was sentenced to life in prison for selling 1/2 pint of whiskey.) The parallels to today's "no-holds-barred" war on drugs: i.e. the only way to prevent behavior is through the use of increasingly severe penalties, are evident. The more things change.... Darrow believed that to inspire behavioral change society needs to remove the cause of the anti-social behavior. Naive perhaps, but has it ever been tried?

[Damian Bakula · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have found my mentor! It was a little strange reading Clarence Darrow's autobiography, because it was as if I had written many of the passages myself. My opinions are not mainstream, so it was odd to find myself sharing 90% of his views. His writing on the causes of most crime being related to circumstances, rather than people being bad was brilliant, as was his theory that many crimes are manufactured and shouldn't be crimes. The only major differences in our opinions are related to the extremes he takes some of his positions and our relative levels of pessimism/optimism. Mr. Darrow believes that life isn't worth living, he prefers that he had not been born, and that basically life is a futile struggle to be endured. He was a caring, compassionate man, and I think that his frustrations with humanity led to his extreme pessimism. I am similarly frustrated with humanity, but hold out more hope. I think that the ills of our time are caused by the usurping of power and control by a small portion of the population. The greater public realizes that something just isn't right, but they can't quite put their finger on it. Tea partiers have taken over the GOP and have their minions believing that it's government and secularism that is the root of all evil, while the Democrats are caught in the complexities of the issues and appear disorganized and confused. At least Democrats are examining the complexities, rather than painting issues black and white and making reckless decisions. As soon as the statement "government of the people, by the people, and for the people" rings true, America will be back on the right track. Not an easy task, but America will learn from her mistakes and visionaries will get us moving in the right direction, I hope...

[Neaka · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book had a really big impact on me. Ever since seventh grade, Clarence Darrow has been THE idol in my life; I aspire to be like him, and I respect him greatly. So when I read his autobiography, I absolutely loved it. Darrow is able to talk about himself in a manner that is neither flattering himself nor degrading to him. He also manages to put a lot of his beliefs within the context of the cases he worked on throughout his life, as well as talk about human nature. It was never boring, and I believe that Clarence Darrow is one of the better authors whose works I have encountered throughout my life.

[AJ Conroy]

From the ABA's 30 books every lawyer should read: Dees is co-founder and chief trial attorney at the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala. He and his civil rights group have been monitoring hate groups and extremist organizations for decades.

“I was already a lawyer running a very successful book publishing company when I read this book. It changed my life. I sold my company and began a civil rights law practice that ultimately became the Southern Poverty Law Center.”

[Alan · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was slow but really interesting. Darrow has a few basic beliefs he keeps returning to: 1) life is just a matter of coincidence. Any of us could be a leader or criminal, rich or poor, just depending on where and to whom we were born; 2) the death penalty is wrong because of #1 - everything is just coincidence; and 3) prohibition of alcohol was the stupidest law ever made in the US.

[Sammy · Rating 4 out of 5]

As far as autobiographies go, this one was extremely entertaining.

[Mizz Hell · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit too much "This I believe" for my tastes. Would have preferred more focus on details of the cases. But still a good read.

[Nance · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books, one of my favorite people

[Bryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clarence Darrow in his own words, mostly. I think he was an exceptional man.

[Slavina · Rating 5 out of 5]

From commercial to employment to criminal lawyer! Very inspiring person and story.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This isn't the sort of thing I would normally read. It was suggested in something I read or an interview I listened to. I bought it and forgot about it for a few months.

A friend told me, credulously, that she didn't believe in the Theory of Evolution. This is not a bible-thumper, yet, someone who believes in ghosts and psychics and the supernatural. It's been the most stunning success of Christian extremism to say that one doesn't choose to "believe" in "evolution." As I write this, the US has just set a new single day record for new Covid-19 infections over a month after stay at home orders have lifted. Not believing in evolution is not believing in gravitation, which is fine with the proviso of advanced degrees in physics, study of quantum mechanics and with it an understanding in quantum gravitation or other ideas I'll never grasp. Not believing in evolution is a lynch-pin of the United States' inability to contend with Covid-19.

I knew about Clarence Darrow from the Scopes Monkey Trial; from HL Mencken's and L Sprague de Camp's treatments of that. I couldn't shake Spencer Tracy from my head reading the autobiography, about which Darrow may well have been pleased. I knew little else about him.

This was the perfect read for me as I slog through Shelby Foote's narrative history of the Civil War, Vol. 1. I am not one of those who fetishize militarism and the military history of battles and strategies and tactics. My interest in the Civil War comes from living in Central, Rural Virginia for five interminable years as a teenager and young college student, where it rages on, daily, up and down Jefferson Davis highway. And carries through the election of Trump, who to my reading is the inevitable conclusion reached logically, ad absurdum, starting with the Reagan Revolution, or the Iranian Revolution, or the answer of Carter's Baptism to Nixonian corruption. The lines of the Civil War were clear in the election of Trump, through his tacit and explicit support for white supremacists, and as the statues of the rebellious losers are toppled at long last.

Clarence Darrow bridged the time from the end of reconstruction - when he started practicing law, his colleagues were veterans of the war - through the great depression and the end of prohibition. He was involved in many famous cases. I have been interested in the rise and demise of the Labor movement in the early twentieth century. Darrow was part of the team to defend "Big Bill" Haywood, a political target of the Federal government and codefenders in a conspiracy. Another incident I'd never heard about was the dynamiting of the LA Times building, which left 21 dead; LA was a non-union town, and the bombing was meant to send a message. The autobiography describes what's whitewashed as "labor unrest" as nothing short of a war.

A couple other notable trials in which he was involved were the Leopold Loeb case, upon which the chilling and pretty good Hitchcock movie "Rope" was based, and the Massie trial in the territory of Hawaii - of which I'd never heard.

The story of his life itself covers maybe two thirds of the book, and the remainder is what captivated me far more. Darrow is the culmination of the best of Enlightenment, Rationalist, Secular Humanist tradition. He describes in very familiar terms the case against the Christian god and religion, familiar as Bertrand Russell's "Why I am an Atheist" through James Murrow's "Blameless in Abaddon," Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, etc.. He describes a very through understanding of astronomy and the universe. He understands Evolution thoroughly. He dismantles both civil and criminal legal systems in the United States. He describes, again - in a very familiar way - the issues of poor education and the lack of opportunity which lead so often to imprisonment. And the ridiculousness of punishing people for crimes as a deterrent. He inveighs against the death penalty. There are other topics I'm surely forgetting.

In short, after reading this, Darrow fits alongside George Orwell and maybe Arundhati Roy as measured, intellectual, compassionate folks who side with those on the right side of a struggle, yet sees things as they are, warts and all. This is the rarest gift, and something to which I relate very strongly. In tracing the origins of the Reagan revolution one must point a finger at the hippies and see those who wallowed in mud at Woodstock or the Newport Folk Festival or whatever who went on to get MBAs and unrepayable loans for BMWs in the 80s. The same thing happens today with Bernie Freegans who like Matthew Lillard's character in SLC Punk have cushy college careers as the worst Western Capitalists waiting for them to "come to their senses;" insert flames burning brightest cliche here. Darrow's and Orwell's and Roy's convictions are true.

One of the successes of Darrow's career was in persuading the Harding administration to commute Eugene V. Debs' sentence. Debs was a hero of mine for anti-war sentiment, when US history is pretty deaf to anti-war movements in the World Wars in the United States - and of course his role in labor. Where Darrow sided with Debs for those and other reasons, his autobiography is far from a leftist screed promulgating socialism. It is moreover a humanist meditation on justice.

The saddest part of the autobiography, to me, is its eternal optimism, its cynic's optimism; it predicts with keening insight alluded to above the end of the criminal justice system based upon our ever-increasing knowledge of the causes which lead to crime and understanding of psychology, and its replacement with a system where the underlying causes of crime have been addressed and people are treated with the utmost compassion and sympathy in legitimate efforts to address their needs. How well this stands up since the murder of Floyd George and the scores of others over the last decade to make national headlines, and the scores of others in the Denver metro area alone with the millions upon millions of payouts by the DPD alone, where the murderers still wear uniforms.

The cultural disbelief in Evolution is a harbinger of Trump and the record setting US failure to respond to Covid-19. Without Evolution there is no drive to find DNA, to understand its mechanisms, and a pathological (so to speak) inability to understand how viruses work. I hope the Scopes Monkey Trials leads others to this work, and whatever other sundry paths, and I hope people stay for the humanity.

n.b.: I am apparently too stupid to write a review successfully on goodreads, so this may cause you to rethink the worth of it. All this in spite of the fact this is the sort of thing I do professionally, i.e., implement un-navagable and impenetrable user interfaces which have been designed by committee and implemented as redesigned in the last two weeks before they're released when this, that, or the other imperialist nimrod proclaims the previous workable understandable version was unacceptable. Eh, goodreads is pretty good actually, maybe it is I who is the nimrod after all.

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE FAMED DEFENSE LAWYER TELLS OF HIS LIFE, ALONG WITH HIS OPINIONS

Clarence Seward Darrow (1857-1938) was an American lawyer (best known for his role in the Scopes "Monkey Trial") and leading member of the American Civil Liberties Union; he also wrote books such as 'Crime; Its Cause and Treatment' and 'Resist Not Evil.' This book was first published in 1932.

He argues, "I have always hated capital punishment. To me it seems a cruel, brutal, useless barbarism. The killing of one individual by another always shows real or fancied excuse or reason. The cause, however poor, was enough to induce the act. But the killing of an individual by the State is deliberate, and is done without any personal grievance or feeling. It is the outcome of long premeditated hatred. It does not happen suddenly and without warning, without time for the emotions to cool and subside, but a day is fixed a long way ahead, and the victim is kept in continued, prolonged torture up to the moment of execution." (Pg. 180)

Of the Scopes case, he said, "Mr. [William Jennings] Bryan had not been inside a courtroom for forty years, but that made no difference, for he did not represent a real case; he represented religion, and in this he was the idol of all Morondom." (Pg. 249)

He suggested, "We fill the prisons with the victims of a civilization that we do not understand, and cannot control. The man or woman who believes that we can deny so many... a chance to live, and then control them through the fear of terrible punishments, needs educating... It is safe to say that almost none of these would have gone to prison except for poverty." (Pg. 340) Later, he adds, "The truth is, that what is called crime is not prevented by fear of punishment. It has never been influenced that way. This is due to causes that are not always clear and distinct and readily understood. No amount of cruelty and threatening can affect the cause. To prevent burglary the cause must be removed; it can never be done in any other way." (Pg. 349)

He admits, "When I am daringly asked if I can imagine the universe making itself I always frankly admit that I cannot imagine it; but still the question provokes some thought. If God made the universe... What did he make it of? Did he make it out of nothing? If so, can any one imagine something being made of nothing?"... How can any say that there is a God simply because he cannot imagine a universe creating itself? How do we know that the universe could not create itself as well as a God could make himself or herself, or itself? How does any one know that the universe could not exist without a cause?... Truth is, man has no conception of the origin of the universe. He has no scrap of evidence that it was ever made, or not made... few people of any sense of decent feeling would damn a race because an ancestor ate an apple when he was told that he should not. Such a God would be a devil..." (Pg. 387-391)

He summarizes, "Emotionally, I shall not doubt act as others do to the last moment of my existence. With my last breath I shall probably try to draw another, but, intellectually, I am satisfied that life is a serious burden, which no thinking, humane person would wantonly inflict on some one else. The strange part of the professional optimist's creed lies in his assertion that if there is no future life then his experience is a martyrdom and a hideous sham." (Pg. 395)

Darrow's autobiography is an excellent summation of his life and ideas.

[Joe Rodeck · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story of a liberal hero, pro labor and anti-death penalty.

A pleasant surprise in "The Story of My Life" was the history and analysis of the 18th Amendment (Prohibition).

"Prohibitionists organized their forces and waged the campaign to destroy the liberties of American citizens. . . they foisted upon the United States a reign of terror, intimidation, violence, and bigotry unprecedented in the modern world."

Would be worthwhile for the legalize pot crowd.

Mostly, though, this book is boring. Darrow was an old man who ended his years on the lecture circuit, not an author. It's something of a ramble on.

The Leopold and Loeb trial. Two teenagers murder a kid just to see if they can commit the perfect crime. This case was a milestone in the anti death penalty war. But the reportage is too superficial. I wanted to know how they got caught. I didn't want to read about what nice guys they were.

The Scopes Monkey Trial. I learned that the worst that could happen to the teacher was a $100 fine. And that Evolution was already being taught in several Southern states. This was case also treated superficially.

Most of the book was labor vs management. In fairness, Clarence Darrow wrote his story w/o the benefit of hindsight; therefore the curious disproportionality.

[Kevin Camp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here, Darrow discusses (in no order) theology, human nature, history, political science, legal proceedings, and hard-won wisdom, all stemming from his years of experience as one of America's all-time great lawyers. Each chapter is very self-contained and runs only for a few pages, but this very basic, conversational structure is charming and extremely effective, rather than annoying and distracting. One might wish that the narrative doesn't jump around as much as it does, but like a good storyteller and courtroom attorney, Darrow spins out his opinions skillfully, believing that less is more, and, as a result, never tries the patience of his audience.

Ninety years after its initial publication in 1932, Darrow's autobiography reveals a man with a profound distrust of institutions in all shapes and sizes. In addition, he is highly suspicious of the convictions of the American people, showing them to be easily swayed by those with nefarious, ruinous intentions. Would a 21st Century audience find this attitude to be elitist and condescending? Some might, perhaps, but Darrow's regard for humanity is evident everywhere in the text.

Darrow calls for civil discourse rather than partisan rancor, a view that is in ever-increasing short supply today. Or, it may have always been this way. I'll leave that up to the mind of the reader.

[Doug · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clear thinking, good writing, and great stories of being a lawyer who puts his all into helping those who need it the most. And the last third of the book consists of Darrow's life philosophy--cogent arguments and beautiful prose both--which really ties it all together. A wonderful autobiography. I learned a lot and enjoyed the journey.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the book that inspired me to go to law school!

[Kenneth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the "Grossets Universal Library" paperback edition, UL-27, published in the late Fifties. Impressed the hell out of me.

[Kirsten]

Biography of well-known attorney. Intelligent but artfully written.

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

am only about 25% through this book. We need more Clarence Darrows!

[Nicolas S Martin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Shameless self-aggrandizement.