No comments about As Far As I Remember.

1 comments about Nature's Justice: Writings of William O. Douglas (Northwest Readers).

1. Few national leaders have shaped present-day America more positively than Justice William O. Douglas. The force of Douglas's ideas has had a profound influence on our world--from the individual liberties that we enjoy to his attitudes about protecting the natural world from human encroachment. At the core of it all is Douglas's idea of the human person. The advantages Americans enjoy over citizens of other nations, particularly totalitarian regimes " . . . are not in material things such as technology and standards of living. They relate to matters of the mind and the spirit . . . Man's moral and spiritual appetite, as well as his political ideals, demanded that he have freedom. Liberty was to be the way of life--inalienable and safe from the intrusions of government."
   
   James O'Fallon's edited selections provide us with an excellent overview of Douglas's vast experience and the life that underlay his philosophy--from his boyhood days growing up in near poverty in the Yakima foothills, through his great Supreme Court decisions (establishing the right of privacy) and dissents. Here we also get a feel of the great men Douglas knew: Brandeis, President Franklin Roosevelt (with whom he played poker and drank martinis regularly), Hugo Black and many others.
   
   In the tradition of John Muir and Aldo Leopold, Douglas is one of our great nature writers with his descriptions of the experiences and characters of the great wild places of our Pacific Northwest. He has a botanist's feel for the detail of a landscape and paints a vivid picture with all the sights, sounds and smells of the wilderness.
   
   Douglas was the partner of presidents, but he also had a great understanding and sympathy for the poor, for persons such as prostitutes who lived in conditions where criminal conduct was prevalent, and hobos with whom he rode in boxcars in his early days. These are outstanding recollections and ideas--Douglas is one of the greatest thinkers of the last Century.

1 comments about The Southern Judicial Tradition: State Judges and Sectional Distinctiveness, 1790-1890 (Studies in the Legal History of the South).

1. Fascinating, compelling, thought-provoking

5 comments about "Ready for the People": My Most Chilling Cases as a Prosecutor.

1. As a criminal defense attorney, I usually avoid "true accounts" written by prosecutors as they tend to be one-sided, self-serving renditions of cases that could be won by a first year law student. The usual story involves a clear cut case where the District Attorney is representing the forces of right (the good people of the State) while the defense is usually some bad dude who deserves a long vacation in Prison. Of course the good guys prevail and the prosecutor is the hero. Good and Evil, Right and Wrong are clearly defined and everybody leaves happy. Not so with Ms. Batt's book. Besides her personal disappointment at the result of one of her cases, she manages to show that all is not black and white - urban life and particularly the criminal justice system present a myriad of situations where the lines become blurred. Her cases are interesting in that there are victims - individuals who by virtue of their own life choices are often viewed as not deserving of protection by the law and the system. Besides showing the underside of life, Batt also manages to forcefully demonstrate the maxim that "no man is above the law and no man is below it."
   A great read, colorful, fast paced and real...I loved it.



2. Marissa has the heart of a warrior. Her stories are classic story telling with spell binding revelations of what the truth is when it comes to crimes and the criminal mind. Her attention to detail, coupled with a sense of the world of the victim, allows the reader to be a prosecutor seeking justice for the people. The criminal procedural aspects of the criminal courts are cleanly explained with no chance of misunderstanding that lawyering is still an art when done with a heart. Marissa injects the calmness of her buddhist philosophy into the psyche of the reader to allow a deeper appreciation of the law and the victim equation.



3. Marissa is erudite, quick, fun, funny, committed to social justice and truth, and and an acute observer of human behavior. Her friend Johnnie Cochran describes her (in the introduction!) as "a prosecutor's prosecutor. She is full of zeal for her profession and possesses an insider's knowledge of the criminal justice system." She's also devoted herself to Buddhism for over 30 years, as well as to the mastery of the culinary arts. All of these elements figure in her very unusual book.

   Besides telling three compelling and hair-raising tales, Marissa shares aloud the unspoken rules of the courtroom, and offers appreciative and insightful looks into the lives of law enforcement professionals, and denizens of South Central LA and the gay demimonde of Hollywood.

   As a skillful storyteller, she is compassionate without becoming maudlin, and righteous without losing her sense of humor.

   I am looking forward to her next book, which I understand is under way!




4. What makes this book so compelling is that you get to hear the perspective of the actual prosecutor in the cases described. Through Marissa Batt's words, you get a virtual tour of the way the Los Angeles legal system works, or in some cases doesn't work. You are introduced to characters that actually inhabit Los Angeles, who actually went through the situations described - cases that are so intense and bizarre, they seem unbelievable. Through it all, you get a comprehensive version of the legal system mirroring human lives and decisions, as seen through the eyes of a person who does their job with integrity, intensity, and strength of character. READ THIS BOOK! It is a thorougly enjoyable read though shocking and extremely upsetting at times.



5. ...of the L.A. justice system. I won't repeat the other reviews, but two or three things deserve note. First, Johnnie Cochran wrote the introduction...high praise indeed. Second, the appendix - "Twenty-five rules for giving effective testimony" - is interesting reading in itself. Overall, the book is not compelling reading, not forcing you to read it in one sitting, but it's interesting and varied. I consumed it in three sittings if memory serves. The pace is generally good, although I felt the Buddhism dragged a bit, but that was only a couple of instances. So - recommended - *especially* if you are a fan of mysteries set in Los Angeles! I await Marissa Batt's next work with more than a little interest.

5 comments about A Lawyer's Life.

1. I thought the readings from chapters 1 through 9 were great. I mean Johnnie Cochran took the reader through cases familiar, and unfamiliar. In detail how some police are just terrible, how the system has bias in who will be the victim. But, the last chapter 10. Oh MY! If you dont read the book, just read chapter 10 it'll make you rethink alot of things. Its powerful-Johnnie goes on stating how the system has failed so many, how corporations get away with discrimination. His life and what its like to be a lawyer. Its just great. Read the book, and if you dont do that. Just read the last chapter, number 10 its worth it.



2. I think it's always good when a storyteller can take us inside the courts and tell us what happens there. And according to this book's author, every lawyer is a storyteller. I believe him.
   
   A LAWYER'S LIFE was written by Johnnie Cochran. I've never seen the man. Not in person, not on TV, nowhere. Are you shocked? I was very careful to avoid all press coverage of the OJ trial, simply because anything that heavily covered should be avoided.
   
   The book's a compelling read, and OJ only gets a few pages. A good proofreader wouldn't hurt, and someone really needed to clean up the repetition. But I'm only nitpicking here.
   
   No hate mail, please. Reading a book like this is about hearing the author's side, understanding it, thinking about the issues, and reaching your own verdict, ladies and gentlemen of the jury. I'd bet you can find this one in your local library by now. Pick it up, start reading, and see what happens.



3. This book is a must read for African American lawyers or if you are considering a degree in either law enforcement or any other legal profession. Cochran is candid and tells the facts. It is a real eye opener about the US legal system.



4. Cochran, the cool crusader
   Brian Gilmore
   
   A LAWYER'S LIFE
   
   By Johnnie Cochran with David Fisher
   
   St. Martin's. $25.95.
   
   It was on that fateful day approximately eight years ago, when Los Angeles attorney Johnnie Cochran agreed to represent O.J. Simpson in his trial for the murder of his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ronald Goldman, that the modern era of the African-American attorney began. The public's perception of black attorneys in the United States was forever changed by Cochran's demonstration, to millions worldwide, that a black lawyer could be cool and competent in the courtroom. Of course, black attorneys, male and female, have always been capable, but Cochran, with the generous assistance of Court TV and countless other media outlets, made the case to the American public.
   
   Cochran has loomed even larger since then, so it is no accident that we are now offered his second memoir since the end of the Simpson trial. Much more opinionated than Journey to Justice, the new book, A Lawyer's Life, is akin to memoirs by so-called legends of the law, such as Conrad Lynn's There Is a Fountain and William Kunstler's My Life as a Radical Lawyer, even though Cochran is a bit different from those famous crusaders for justice. He believes in justice, too, and pursues it. But he also likes to dress immaculately and says so. He isn't afraid to say that he enjoys being paid for his talents, either. And he isn't afraid of the bright lights of the media.
   
   This book could have been called Johnnie Cochran: My Struggle Against Police Misconduct. That's because Cochran exposes in meticulous detail some of the most striking examples of police misconduct and racist behavior in California, New York and New Jersey. In A Lawyer's Life, you will meet William Anthony Leonard, 19 years old, shot to death by the police while opening a window. Leonard, according to Cochran, was baby-sitting at the time to earn extra money. The police officer who saw him opening the window saw him only as a black man and "assumed he was a burglar."
   
   There is also Phillip Johns, shot to death by the police in his bed because they had received a wrong address from an informant. And Ron Settles, a standout college football player, who was found hanging from the bars in his cell after he was arrested during a bogus traffic stop in an affluent section of Los Angeles. Settles, Cochran suggests, was one of the many victims of the infamous L.A. police choke hold that killed so many men of color over the years. And there is Leonard Deadwyler, shot to death by a Los Angeles policeman after being stopped for speeding through residential neighborhoods. Deadwyler was trying to get his pregnant wife, who was in labor, to the hospital on time. Cochran, who lost the $3-million wrongful death civil suit he brought on behalf of Deadwyler's wife, states passionately that "no case affected me more than the shooting of Leonard Deadwyler."
   
   Cochran's crusade against police misconduct and racist behavior culminated in the Simpson trial, where the naked bigotry of the LAPD was exposed in the person of Mark Furhman. Referring to the now- famous screenplay tapes as the reason he became involved in the trial, Cochran is unapologetic about his tactics. Furhman, according to Cochran, was "talking about his life as a cop. Framing people, setting up people, killing people." Cochran cannot understand why the tapes were never released to the public, considering that Furhman has become a successful author. "If people were permitted to hear these tapes," Cochran adds, "I feel confident that Furhman's career would end quite abruptly and he would be forced to crawl back into his hole, never to be heard from again."
   
   A Lawyer's Life also includes Cochran's journey to New York to work for Court TV, and the police brutality case stemming from the vicious assault on Abner Louima. Cochran made history when he broke down the "blue wall of silence" by suing the city's powerful police union. He also includes the Amadou Diallo killing, even though here he met with one of his biggest professional disappointments. Diallo's mother initially hired Cochran to handle the case for her but fired him later because he was not always immediately available.
   
   Not far away in New Jersey, Cochran represented four young black men who were racially profiled on the New Jersey Turnpike. The young men, now known as the "New Jersey Four," were pulled over and eventually sprayed with gunfire by the police during the traffic stop. The case became synonymous with racial profiling nationwide, and cost New Jersey nearly $13 million in damages.
   
   Finally, after detailing his representation of hip-hop magnate Sean "Puffy" Combs, Cochran takes time, among other things, to discuss the possible lawsuit he is contemplating with other attorneys to seek reparations for slavery. He admits he doesn't really have any answers yet. "Who are the plaintiffs?" he asks. "Who are the defendants? What remedy do we propose? Is there a statute of limitations?" These are, of course, daunting questions.
   
   Yet if you read A Lawyer's Life, you come away knowing that soon Johnnie Cochran, great-grandson of a slave, will provide answers to them all. Then, as expected, the cameras will start rolling.
   
   Brian Gilmore, a public interest attorney and the author of Jungle Nights and Soda Fountain Rags: Poem for Duke Ellington, wrote this review for the Washington Post.
   
   Copyright The Chicago Sun-Times, Inc.



5. I really enjoyed reading this book and it was interesting to find out what the Los Angeles civil and criminal court systems were like in the late 1960's and early 1970's.
   
   At times, Johnnie Cochran engages in moments of self-puffery, but he's earned the right to gloat as he writes about a life lived to the fullest. He found a life's work that mattered greatly to him, and it also made him rich, and he makes no apologies for it.
   
   Cochran, with the help of a co-author, writes openly and honestly about a Los Angeles that was - and still is today - heavily defined by race and social class. To his credit, he goes light on the OJ and instead focuses on the more significant cases in his career, of which the OJ Simpson defense was one of the least important, even though that is the one case for which he will always be remembered.
   
   I highly recommend this book.

5 comments about Allan Pinkerton: The First Private Eye.

1. This books encompasses all of Allan's PI's work. I had an enjoyable time reading it. It is a fasination subjet for me. I am considering of changing careers and going into the PI business.



2. Pinkerton Biography

   The story of Allan Pinkerton, a poor Scottish immigrant and former working-class radical who rose through the ranks of society to become the protector and confidant of presidents and tycoons is a quintessential American story that deserves such a thorough telling. This book was a fascinating read, and left me wishing that the author had delved more into the numerous early cases that were only hinted at in the text.

   The only serious criticism of this biography is the author appears to have gotten a little too close to his subject, which in several points has clouded his objectivity. This is apparent in the book's tendency to rush to Pinkerton's defense, particularly regarding the handling of the Molly Maguires and other labor disturbances of the late 19th century. A sweeping condemnation of the labor activists as "terrorists," or stressing the fact that they greatly outnumbered the Pinkerton operatives during violent strikes, are intended to make Pinkerton and his agents "the good guys" in the eyes of readers. This stance is questionable, however, considering the book's general lack of background information on the U.S. labor situation at this time. The author also neglects to explore how Pinkerton, a well-known Glasgow labor radical in his own youth, so readily sided with "other side" -- the titans of American industry -- later on in life.

   But overall this book is a good read and well-researched, especially the chapters concerning Pinkerton's early life in Scotland and his association with President Lincoln during the Civil War.




3. Mackay is as talanted a literary detective as Allan Pinkerton was as a criminal detective, written in a clear style that's a pleasure to read. It's a well balanced account, explaining the character's actions in the context of the times.
   Mackay's first surprise is that Allan Pinkerton wasn't born when most biographers say he was. From there he goes on to uncover the truth about Pinkerton's early career in Scotland, and the truth about a 'supposed' assasination plot against Lincoln before he took office. (The plot was independently confirmed by a political enemy of Pinkerton who had no motive to make Pinkerton look good--which convinced Lincoln the plot was real, and to follow Pinkerton's suggestions to foil it. Political enemies of Lincoln denied the existence of the plot to make Lincoln out to be a coward.) Before he finishes the Civil War period, Mackay has 'rehabilited' the often pilloried Union general McClellan (whom Pinkerton worked for) and divulged startling information uncovered in 1967 about the plot to assasinate Lincoln. This book is outstanding, a definite 'keeper'.



4. This biography of the inventor of the private investigation industry is not only a thrilling look at a fascinating man, it is also a fresh perspective on a slice of American history. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in mystery fiction or detective novels, as well as anyone who is looking for a history book that isn't boring. While it may well be a bit biased, the presentation is thought-provoking and makes me want to research the period of the late Civil War/early Reconstruction more thoroughly.
   Better than most fiction I've encountered lately, and definitely an overlooked gem.



5. As one who is both a American history buff and a lover of mystery, Private
   Eye novels- I was very drawn to this book.
   
   I am not familiar with the author James MacKay- he is very deep in his
   research and writing.
   
   If you can get through the first 2 chapters of the book, You'll find a
   very interesting novel.

No comments about Arthur J. Goldberg: New Deal Liberal.

5 comments about Four Trials.

1. Although I am both a fan of John Edwards and legal books (well, fiction, mostly), I didn't read this book for quite some time. I imagined, as I'm sure many other people did, that it would be a matter-of-fact review of four cases in only a legal aspect and, quite honestly, boring.
   
   I'm so glad I gave this book a chance, though, because it is none of those things. It is about four of his cases, but it is also so much more. The cases have real human interest appeal, and Edwards starts off as almost the underdog (with people even then poking fun at his hair). All four trials are riveting, and I could not put down this book. Bits of Edwards' personal and family life and interspersed with the cases -- growing up and moving with his blue-collar family, meeting his wife Elizabeth (who, from what we read, hasn't changed a bit!), his children. If you like Edward's speaking style -- which I do -- it's very clear in this book.
   
   Overall, whether you like Edwards or not, whether you like legal reading or not, this is so much more. It's a wonderful read that you won't be able to put down, and I cannot recommend it enough.



2. I contributed to his campaign in 2004 and received this book included with my contribution. I hate this book!
   
   He glorifies how he sued Doctors out of the water.
   
   I know many doctors that do as much as they can to help people and lawyers like Edwards are a reason some doctors(who are a little guy on their own) have gone to hell.
   
   Let's do some math!
   
   Let's say a Surgeon makes $450,000/year
   Uncle Sam takes about half which is $225,000
   
   A doctor who just lost a malpractice suit, such as a surgeon, will look to pay $150 to $200,000 per year on malpractice insurance. ($225,000 minus $200,000 = $25,000)
   
   Wow! Many people make more than some surgeons! Thanks to Edwards-like lawyers.



3. Edwards does some self-promotion in this book, and pays tribute to the son he lost. But the book is mostly a blow-by-blow account of trials in which he helped the "little guy" stand up to wealthy, powerful interests. The writing is not particularly great (and Edwards had help), but the content is compelling. I gave the book to my doctor, who has an innate dislike of trial lawyers - still waiting for his review! Bottom line: if I suffered a life-altering injury through someone else's negligence or malfeasance, I'd want a guy like John Edwards in my corner.



4. is abundantly evident in the pages of this book. We forget that among all the junk lawsuits in our society, there are some that truly call for justice. Senator Edwards wasn't afraid to take on those whose interests called for subverting the legal system by victimizing people.
   
   In this compelling book, you will read things that will surprise, shock, and sadden you. But through it all, you will be impressed by a man who used his skills as an attorney and his convictions as a man to right wrongs, and be a voice for those without any voice.
   
   I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Senator Edwards and I can tell you that he is sincere and dedicated. It was with sadness that I watched him have to suspend his Presidential race in 2008. He would have made one of the greatest Presidents America ever had.
   
   Get this book and read about an attorney that not only has character, but the type of values sadly missing in so many in his profession.



5. I read the book when it first came out, and I too was impressed. It's only in the last week or so that my blood runs cold when I think of how this "man of integrity" was fooling around on his cancer-stricken wife despite presenting his family as the centerpiece of his presidential campaign. But the book itself is of value, there is no question...detailing how important it is to stand up for justice, particularly for the disinfranchised. Would that it was written by someone of character and integrity...someone we could genuinely admire...rather than this charlatan who, with breathtaking audacity, threw it all away for a few romps in the hay. Sad, sad, sad...and how his deceased son, Wade, would have been shocked by his father's treatment of his mother! But the book itself is well-written and researched - and is a call to arms!

5 comments about Covering: The Hidden Assault on Our Civil Rights.

1. I recently heard Professor Yoshino speak here in Seattle on a day in celebration of Human Rights Day, and I can attest to his being a gifted speaker and possessing an extraordinary intellect.
   
   However, with respect to the notion of "covering," a term I believe that he has coined in this book to illuminate a polemical topic that he wishes to place squarely into the fore of the larger map/discourse of civil rights in the U.S., I am perplexed that his notion of the "mainstream" apparently does not take into account more dimensions, e.g., the cultural anthropological/sociological.
   
   From my own experience as a gay man AND as an Asian-American, I have found, largely to my dismay, that in either social group, there is, in fact, a "mainstream" that does, in fact, exert pressure to conform to its "majority" norms, behaviors...
   
   And I would suppose that in any "society," whether it be in a nation-state such as Japan, or a social group such as African-Americans, that there do exist "mainstream" cultures that individuals within those groups do have to "contend with."
   
   "Covering" as Yoshino has placed it has, by dint of his conceptual definition of it has overwhelmingly negative connotations, one which allows a "mainstream" body within a social group to exert pressures on individual members who do not conform, whether out of choice or due to individual disposition.
   
   But sometimes what could be considered "covering" (by some people) is also a means of what one could consider "healthy assimilation" or a reasonable concession to the majority--without being in any way a "sell-out."
   
   When and where such "concessions" become a sell-out, of course, is an open question. But even where "adaptation" in some behaviors to the "norm" of the mainstream does occur, it may simply entail "building bridges" and acknowledging the opinion of the majority rather than remaining in isolation from them.
   
   (If, for example, I am a nudist, I can still choose to walk outside of my house WITH clothing on, if only in simple deference to the fact that the law and the majority of my fellow citizens deem it an offense or offensive or both).
   
   This is not to deny the legitimacy of the claims of gay people to equal rights (to marriage, protection from discrimination in the job market, etc.) but to point out that "covering" might be understood in a more nuanced context. Covering, in all its different aspects, is not tantamount in all situations to being an "assault on civil rights."
   
   Covering may simply describe the "interface" where the majority and a smaller grouping, at least in a particular situation, and where the minority accedes to the norms of the former--despite the negative overtones that the author is ascribing to it. In other cases, the reverse (majority accedes to the behaviors of the minority despite a clear divergence of opinion) could and, in fact, DOES happen in America.
   
   In some instances, too, dysfunctional or inappropriate (vis-a-vis the majority) behavior by a minority is tolerated, condoned, or even lauded.
   
   Discussions of loaded discussions of "diversity" or "covering" need to be evaluated within a context rather than be seen in a predetermined, black-or-white intellectual "matrix."
   
   In other words, the major concern that I have with this book is that it too "obviously" has an agenda stamped on it.
   
   The personal details disclosed nicely balance the analytical (legal) side of the discussion.
   
   But in terms of overall appeal to both mind AND heart, a little less Paul Haggis (director/screenwriter of "Crash"). Taking a strong position on an issue, with corroborative evidence, is fine. Re-iterating that position--as a constant thread--throughout a long discussion may seem to some people evidence of "not dodging an issue." But considering all the different dimensions of that issue would provide, I believe, a more balanced, more cogent argument in favor of one's position.



2. The Publisher's Weekly review says it all, but I cannot let the opportunity pass to add my voice to those honoring this book. Yes, it's a simple concept, elaborated over 200 pages, but there is nothing monotonous about it. The academic monotony characteristic of similar monographs is thwarted through the simplest of means: the scholar-author is also a poet. He writes on the minutiae of civil rights law with the compression and unexpected image that make strong poetry memorable. I heard the author speak on the concept of Covering on the Maine Public Radio broadcast of the Chataqua Program. The discussion was interesting enough, but when he read the Epilogue, I immediately thought, "I have to have that in my Commonplace Book." As a politically active gay man and 15-year conductor of a gay men's chorus, I've often meditated on the meaning of cultural appropriation, assimilation, and accommodation and the resulting effect on actualization and abnegation of the individual. So, Kenji Yoshino's orderly discussion of coversion, passing, and covering is immediately attractive to me. But it is not my habit to read 'brainiac' books. I'm put off by the customary tone, talking down to me, especially when the subject of the discussion is, by inference, me and the people I know and love. This one is the exception. I feel like Yoshino and I have just spent a long evening, with a wide variety of friends, talking about something of immediate concern to all of us. And then there's that Epilogue. Talk is one thing, but how we live it out is usually quite another. And it's never simple. That's why it's best left to the hands of a poet, and this poet has done it well.



3. A mix of professional experience, glimpses of personal experience, poetic imagination and some interesting ideas for America's future. I am glad I've read it. The only regret is that the book doesn't lead to a powerful, clear vision for the country. The very interesting ideas from the introduction are just briefly repeated at the end. Maybe someone else will build upon this material? The book certainly encourages a discussion. Maybe that was the whole point?



4. No offense to Yoshino, but in truth, he doesn't make many actual points. This is a great book if you want to hear about his personal journey, but it's not very enlightening overall.



5. There have been several struggles in civil rights in the USA. Women suffrage, African American civil rights, and finally the Gay, Lesbian, Transgender, and Bisexual cause.
   
   Yoshino, a law professor at Yale and a gay, Asian-American man, masterfully melds autobiography and legal scholarship in this book, marking a move from more traditional pleas for civil equality to a case for individual autonomy in identity politics. Seldom has a work of such careful intellectual rigor and fairness been so deeply touching.
   
   In questioning the phenomenon of "covering," a term used for the coerced hiding of crucial aspects of one's self--in his case his homosexuality--Yoshino thrusts the reader into a battlefield of shifting gray areas. Yet, at every step, he anticipates the reader's questions and rebuttals, answering them not only with acute reasoning, but also with disarming humility.
   
   What emerges is an eloquent, poetic protest against the hidden prejudices embedded in American civil rights legislation--legislation that tacitly apologizes for "immutable" human difference from the white, male, straight norm, rather than defending one's "right to say what one is." Though Yoshino recognizes the law's potential to further (and hinder) liberty's cause, he admits that his "education in law has been an education in its limitations." Hence, by way of his unsparing accounts of self-realization, he reveals that the struggle against oppression lies not solely in fighting an imagined, monolithic state but as much in intimate discourse with the mother, the father, and the colleague who constitute that state. It deals with the ability to "blend" with the society who is yet to give the GLBT community the rights and respect it deserves.
   
   As healing as it is polemical, this book has tremendous potential as a touchstone in the struggle for universal human dignity.

5 comments about Clarence Thomas: A Biography.

1. It is quite simply a masterpiece. Justice Thomas is portrayed as a real human being who has survived the castigation of the far Left... with a dignity that speaks loud and clear above the wailing of the extreme left Liberals who cannot believe a man of color exists who they cannot control. Read how this man of incredible intellect and courage overcomes all odds to become the first black intellectual to occupy the bench. Unlike Thurgood Marshall who knew political correctness before it became the defacto "law of the land", this biography portrays a true independent thinker and voice for judicial freedom that will not be silenced. The depths to which the Left will sink in its outrage when anyone escapes from the plantation is well documented. The viciousness of the Left and NOW during the Hill debacle is nicely contrasted with their mute impotent silence during the Clinton impeachment proceedings. It is well written and well researched, and most importantly unbiased unlike other competing biographies. Somehow this bio was allowed to be published. Do not forgo the opportunity to read and own your own copy.



2. From page 1 to the last you won't be able to put down this book. If you are interested in reading something that will lift your spirits and give you back some faith in individual honesty you need to read this.
   
   It should be a genre of its own. I mean, it's the ages-old odyssey of a person who makes it through all the obstacles of his environment to the top of that society. Not without scars. It's the story of a modern hero, the only kind that subsists today: the ignored one. A person who fought for his ideals, his beliefs, against all odds (economic, social, whatever).
   
   Mr. Thomas is a living monument to faith in a Divine Author against the tendency to idolize social and liberal causes.
   
   This is also a worthy reading for growing Christians.
   
   Shame for those who want to use God for their political persuasions, like those who blame the Pope for not being liberal. They can't admit being atheists, they prefer to destroy His Kingdom from inside.
   
   Thanks Clarence.



3. Okay, there are several books on Thomas out there. This is my first. That said, the author is a gifted writer. This book is as accessible as a novel. Really. Non-lawyers don't have to beware.
   
   Liberals need not beware, either. Is the author sympathetic toward his subject? Well, I suppose so. This book is MOSTLY free of editorializing, though. Mostly, the author just relates what happened in a pretty impartial manner. Most of the editorializing is done when the author is criticizing his subject.
   
   The author recognizes that his subject has a strain of bathos, self-pity and exagerration. He includes several anectodes that portray Thomas as socially awkward, constantly seeking love and approval from EVERYONE, but unexpectedly lashing out at co-workers with cruel and unwarranted comments or intentionally setting subordinates against each other.
   
   All in all, he portrays a hardworking, reasonably smart politician who acended to the Supreme Court through an odd combination of luck, affirmative action, political connections, gladhanding, politicking, genuine administrative ability, and a Puritan work ethic. I don't think anyone will walk away from this being impressed by Thomas as a genius, a trendsetter, or a role model in particular. For those liberals that are predisposed to hating him, however, just by virtue of his politics, this book will likely engender a feeling of understanding and compassion for Thomas. After all, how can you hate someone for being socially awkward. How can you ridicule someone for being competent, hardworking, and able, even if that person isn't a genius? How can you blame a guy for coming from literally nothing and rising so highly even if he's not one of the 9 best legal minds in the country? So he's just "a man." That's okay, right?
   
   The book does make a case against Anita Hill.... I'm not the type to assume I know "what happened" in cases like that. Suffice it to say that the case against Hill is pretty convincing and it rings true.
   
   Despite the length of the book (like 600 pages!), it's a quick and enjoyable read.
   
   My one huge criticism is that you don't get to the court years until like page 450. I'd rather the background constitute a 1/3 of the book than 3/4s. I bought it to read about JUSTICE Thomas, you know?



4. Finding a good biography is hard to begin with. This is even more true if the subject is the human lightning rod of Clarence Thomas, quite possibly the most polarizing figure out there. Indeed, Thomas Sowell once wrote something to the effect that one can tell a white liberal's level of commitment to his beliefs by how much he despises the man. I am therefore happy to say that CLARENCE THOMAS: A BIOGRAPHY is a true joy to read.
   
   A major reason for this book being so good is because the author Andrew Peyton Thomas (no relation to the Justice) is so balanced. Other writers would either disparage Justice Thomas or act as little more than a literary cheerleader for the man based on ideological disposition. While the author A.P. Thomas obviously is an admirer of Justice Thomas, he nonetheless portrays the Justice warts and all. In fact, one of my friends, a white liberal who cannot discuss anything related to race without wallowing in white guilt and who simply cannot grasp the fact that blacks are responsible for their own lives, upon hearing that I was reading this book, asked me, his voice dripping with condescension and even hostility, whether the author goes over Justice Thomas having benefitted from affirmative action only to try to end such policies now. I was able to respond that, yes, indeed the author does cover this. In fact, quite extensively, while placing Justice Thomas' change of direction in the proper context and discussing the man's turmoil that others would focus on him rather than on the issues themselves (if my friend caught the irony, he did not let on).
   
   CLARENCE THOMAS covers the Justices' early life extensively. I was initially hesitant that so many pages were devoted to what I considered to be basically an introduction. I was wrong. Thomas' early life and the influences upon him by his relatives, nuns and others with whom he came into contact is absolutely captivating.
   
   As the book enters Thomas' adult years, the book loses none of its steam. Again, it is not just the facts of Thomas' life that are so captivating (though that is true), but that the author presents a vivid portrait of a man determined to stay true to himself in a context in which others want to use him for their own purposes and in the face of often seemingly insurmountable odds. We also get a focused picture of really just what kind of man Thomas is, as we read about his determination in the face of frustration after frustration. The author is not so much a fan of the Justice as to fail to acknowledge that Clarence Thomas, like many of us, has not always been able to live up to his ideals and that in some circumstances, subtle truths gave way to expediency.
   
   The reader also understands how Thomas was able to rise so high so fast. This is a man, after all, who came to the helm of the EEOC when it was the worst run administrative agency of the federal government only to turn it into the crown jewel by the time he left, all the while laughing, having a good time and without the heads-will-roll attitude others would have brought to the task. And while others voiced the opinion that the cloistered life of a federal judge would not suit Thomas' personality, Thomas proved them wrong as well.
   
   But again, CLARENCE THOMAS is not just a brightly colored paint job. The author also writes powerfully not only of Thomas' rough spots, but of the effect these had on the man and his approach to others. Justice Thomas was, not surprisingly, deeply seared by the attacks upon him during his confirmation hearing and with the insight that others would destroy every scrap of his good name simply for ideological purposes. Given the controversy surrounding the man, this book is probably the best source a reader could ask for to gain a good insight into Clarence Thomas, one of the more interesting figures to grace the American public stage.



5. Although the author uncovers every detail of Justice Thomas' life in excruciating detail, he repeatedly stumbles over his own tail by making the narrative morally all upside-down. This tome is more like white "southern Archaeology" than Black Biography.
   
   As but one instance of what will surely irritate others, the early chapters are devoted almost exclusively (and incessantly) to the possible influence that early Puritan religious racists values, including such vigilantes as the Ku Klux Klan, may have had on Mr. Thomas' fore-parents, on his orientation to American society, and on his formative outlook as a person. While this makes for interesting reading if one is white, the emphasis is all wrong if not entirely misplaced, from the point of view of a Black.
   
   As but the most glaring example of the authors many mis-drawn conclusions (from a virtual welter of otherwise useful facts), the author concludes that Justice Thomas' strong values and piety were somehow derived entirely from these confusing if not entirely morally conflicted, bankrupt and contradictory racists examples: that is, from the severe practices of ex-slave owners, vigilantes, unfair overseers, etc.
   
   Respectfully, this is not a point a view that either the Justice or any other Black reader is likely to share, or would wish to have emphasized in a biography even if they did share it. In neither case would they draw from them the same lessons or conclusions that the author has drawn here.
   
   It is a fact that Blacks throughout the worst of America's racist criminality, were at all times clear about what kind of inhumanity the white system represented and with which they were dealing.
   
   It is a first order mistake to think (as the author has done) that simply because Blacks "went through the motions" of mimicking white society, they respected it. Blacks "going along with white society to get along" should never be mistaken for respecting it, and one should never make the mistake of thinking that Blacks would therefore draw the wrong moral lessons from white practice and examples. It was a rare instance indeed that a Black of the segregation era actually "looked up to whites" or respected white American society. Even the author has ample evidence of this among his many facts, yet he repeatedly draws the easy, white stereotypical, and wrong conclusions.
   
   But more than this, he compounds this unconscionable error by virtually ignoring the counter-examples (of upstanding racially un-conflicted white humanity) standing right before his eyes: If one wanted to emphasize "the whites" who did have a dominant influence on Justice Thomas (and his family), one did not need to excavate the sordid history of violence and lynching that seemed so easy for the author to write about. One needed go no further than the Irish Nuns, who not only used the same "tough love" that Thomas' own grandfather used, but also were not conflicted about their moral attitudes towards their "colored children."
   
   When white teachers sit at the back of the bus with their "colored charges," no further examples of white humanity are needed. In the eyes of Blacks, this single act trumps all of the white vigilantism of the past 300 years. Surely it must have been clear to the author (at some level) that it is a certainty that whatever Justice Thomas and his elderly grandparents learned from white people, it was learned from the humanity of the Nuns and not from the lessons of the "hooded vigilante nightriders" of prior generations.
   
   Another equally egregious error that followed the same easy stereotypical pattern, again despite ample counter-evidence right before the author's eyes, was the fact that both of Justice Thomas' parents abandoned him, and although it was clear that from the Justice's point of view, the weightier of the two was the abandonment by his mother, this author still preferred to discount this weightier abandonment and emphasize that of the father.
   
   These are not mistakes that a reader can easily overlook. They destroy, in a very violent way, the implicit confidence between reader and author. And while I will continue reading the book to the bitter end, my "crap-detection" antenna has clearly been raised to "Full Alert."
   
   What Price Ambition: The Pathos of Clarence Thomas
   
   As noted above, the subject of this biography, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, was presented early in his adult life, with the perennial dead man's choice: either your soul and dignity, or fame and fortune (on terms dictated by others). This biography is the story of his life, one filled from beginning to end with more than the normal amount of tragedy and pathos, told well by a talented biographer (who's flaws I have pointed to above). It is about a good, descent and intelligent black man who was dealt an unusually bad hand in his early life; and about how he tried to square the circle and end up victorious by playing all of the angles with the cards dealt him. But how in the end he merely became a victim of his own ambition exploited by cruel and cynical political games played above his head, the rules to which were dictated to him by the politics of others, who all along had Machiavellian plans for him and his life.
   
   Sadly, this tableau -- where a young not so innocent subject is a pawn on a chessboard played above his head -- is an all too familiar one in American professional life, and thus this book is the ultimate cautionary tale of what can happen, no matter ones race, when they arrive at the station of adulthood with nothing going for themselves but a fragile ego, a weak self-concept, a high-priced education, too much pride, a wandering and questionable moral compass, and always uncertain plans for the future. Any young American who strikes out to find his fortune and his place in the world with this particular constellation of personal qualities is likely to end up caught in the same ringer, filled with the same moral quicksand, that all but consumed Justice Thomas. Thus there is a theme running along the subtext of this saga, one that runs straight through, not only the heart of Justice Thomas' life, but one that might be eerily familiar to many, if all of us.
   
   The author's Story
   
   At an early age Thomas was abandoned, first by his father and then later by his mother. Since then, one of Thomas' highest instincts has been being able to sense how to adapt quickly and make the best of a bad set of circumstances. As the "unwanted ward" of his grandparents he was industrious, stayed out of trouble, did well in school, and respected and obeyed his grandparents. There frankly were no other options available to him. In Catholic school his Irish teachers were the first white people not to call him a "nigger" (or his grandfather "boy") and to treat him like a "real human being." Uncommon in the era of the 50s, they let him know he had a good mind and that they expected great things of him. As a result of his faith in the Catholic version of white humanity, and his good grades, Thomas entered the priesthood only to find he was isolated because of his race; and while he was not called a "nigger" to his face there, he was referred to as "the one black spot on an all white horse."
   
   After MLK's murder, he gave up the priesthood altogether realizing that if a holy man such as King could be shot to death in broad daylight, and if racism existed even in the monastery, the holiest of sanctuaries, then racism must "trump" religion everywhere. At Holy Cross University, at last he thought he had found his "lost black family" with the Black Student Union and as a participant in activist anti-racist politics, only to again find himself disillusioned and "odd man out." He abandoned "the Black Cause" as quickly has he had embraced it and went on to get married to one of his liberal anti-racists cohorts. Together they headed off to Yale law school. At Yale he was stuck with, and stung by the "affirmative action baby moniker" and was devastated by his inability to get a job after completing his "high-priced" Ivy League education.
   
   Seeing the glut of left-leaning Civil Rights Lawyers on the job market, and finally seeing the handwriting on the wall, Thomas gave up forever all hope of a fair, independent and dignified life under his own agency and on his own terms, and proceeded to cast his lot with those who needed him the most. He and his jobless over-educated "cut-buddies" made a very pragmatic, strategic and life-altering decision: They decided to sell themselves to the highest bidder.
   
   Testing the direction of the wind and sharpening their new found rightwing, anti-liberal rhetoric, it was easy enough for Thomas and his friends to see that since the Republican Party was barren of black faces, their ticket into the future was to written on the coattails of Republicans and their conservative philosophy. With the most calculating of Machiavellian forethought, over night Thomas and his "cut-buddies" became card-carrying Republicans, as well as died-in-the-wool, newly minted Conservatives. And as they had predicted, their overnight conversions would not long go unnoticed, "the powers that be" could smell them coming a mile away, and made them all offers they couldn't refuse: "Give up your fight for liberal leftwing black causes; join our band of conservative brothers, and we will give you all the fame and fortune you can handle."
   
   This was the smoothest deal Thomas had ever cut in his short, undistinguished, stifling, barren, increasingly cornered, young adult life. He had long daydreamed about becoming a Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Here at last was his chance to take a short cut and cut a quick path to that goal on his own terms and at the same time leave those who had rejected him, forever in the dust. This was his golden chance to trade in a lifetime of self-loathing, isolation, abandonment, rejection and sulking about the hardship of black life, for his own blind unadulterated ambition. All he had to do was turn in his "black power card," turn away from his own half-baked liberal ideas, and learn to live with racism and embrace and tap dance to the new Reagan brand of the "conservative two-step." And never was learning to do these two things, so quick, easy, and painless as under the careful tutelage of John Danforth, a Missouri Congressman and minister who took Thomas under his wing and mentored him in the same way that Thomas' grandfather had done before him.
   
   But the big game did not begin in earnest until Thomas' first appointment as Legal Council for the Department of Education. There he "cut his teeth," "made his bones," and acquired his conservative bona fides. It was at this time that he was first given a legal dagger and taught how to openly stab his people in the back. However since he was still a virgin, he was at first allowed to do so quietly from the sidelines. With legalese, Thomas was taught how to throw a legal dagger like a cruise missile, at a safe "standoff" distance from the main arena, and then how to find and use appropriate legal rationale to "home in on the target" as they were used to justify dismantling the hard won civil rights gains accumulated over the better part of a century. Desegregation laws went un-enforced; bussing programs were stopped and reversed; school programs for the poor and disadvantaged were sliced to the bones; and most of all, the much feared, "Affirmative Action" was stopped cold in its tracks.
   
   As Thomas began to lose his virginity and succeeded beyond even his own imagination and well beyond his "handlers" expectations, only then did he realize that the trap door had shut behind him. He had been snared by his own unbridled ambitions, and now there was "no turning back." The time had come for him to pay the piper. For the first time in his life, Thomas, the moral virgin, the "runaway priest to be," had found himself in a "moral and philosophical no man's land," where he could no longer straddle the fence, or talk and back his way out. He was now "owned" by the opposing side. He was "their black Trojan Horse;" their political cruise missile, hurled into the lion's den. Without any question, Thomas had been sent up the old proverbial creek in a boat without a paddle.
   
   To make a bad situation much worst and to ensure he learned how to play by the new rules, Thomas was further Baptized in fire: He was given a staff of all liberals, not one consisting of his old "cut buddies," who by now had all landed jobs elsewhere in the Reagan administration. Included among his staff were the now infamous feminist and liberal Anita Hill. All of Thomas' staff, including Hill was of course sympathetic to the other side, and had insisted on maintaining at least a modicum of their dignity and sense of independence from an administration clearly at war with everything that had meaning to black citizens: progress in race relations. They admired and prayed to the very laws, institutions and political philosophy Reagan opposed as if they were sacred Black totems. They did so to the very laws, institutions and philosophy whose job it was for Thomas to dismantle. In fact even more cynical than this, Thomas was also expected to dismantle his own job and the Department of Education itself, all in the name of higher conservative principles. Thomas's staff all hated him: both for who and what he was, as well as for what he had allowed himself to become, and they told him so. And to underscore this point, at the earliest opportunity, all but the least able of them, quickly abandoned him, as did his wife.
   
   But Clarence Thomas had seen this movie before and knew its ending by heart: He was not about to allow it to again derail his carefully laid plans by snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. This time Thomas would not be denied the brass ring of a seat on the Supreme Court. His "if you can't beat them, then join them" philosophy, had by now congealed and crystallized in his mind. Thomas was no longer a virgin, but a chameleon: Clarence Thomas had learned to change colors and become whatever he was told he was. Although he would be the last to admit it, subconsciously Thomas was a defeated man; there was no more fight left in him. In his unconscious mind, there was no longer such a thing as "independent agency" left completely and solely up to one's pride and ego. Life was too short and too complicated an affair for that; and anyway, life was just a series of compromises to be made in reverse order: first after consulting with the "powers that be," and only afterwards with ones own conscious. Independence, agency and pride also came in colors too: the color of money and ambition.
   
   Through no fault of its own, Thomas became the darling of the rightwing as during his confirmation hearing for his appointment to the Courts, he managed to "fall uphill" through the hi-tech lynching engineered by the opposing side who had put the same dagger in Thomas' back that he had used to gut a century of Civil Rights legislation. It was only poetic justice that they had placed the dagger in the hands of his erstwhile lover and office mate, Anita Hill. In the end and on the surface Thomas seems to have won the battle to gain his ambitions: He married a white woman and was confirmed as a member of the Court. As this author makes eminently clear, Justice Thomas, ever driven by ambition, chose fame and fortune dictated by a philosophy alien to his being, over dignity and maintaining the council of his own conscience and soul. And arguably he did so at the very high price of guaranteeing that his most important victories would forever be pyrrhic.
   
   Whatever else may be said about Justice Thomas, he still sits mostly mute, almost sphinx-like on the Supreme Court with a tattered and shredded reputation as dark and as black as his skin or his judge's robe. Fairly or not, Justice Thomas is still seen by many, if not by most, as the conservative caricature of the Twenty-First Century: The "Uncle Tom," handpicked to fill the Supreme Court Justice seat normally reserved for an "authentic black." By any standards, such a legacy is a bitter pill to swallow and a very high price to pay for fame and success.
   
   
   Although my original comments hold, I now upgrade the book to Five Stars. Altogether, this was a very worthy project.