No comments about Queen's Court: Judicial Power in the Rehnquist Era.

No comments about Biographical Encyclopedia of the Supreme Court.

1 comments about A Tale of Two Worlds: My Life as a Proud Black Woman with White Skin.

1. Race is far more than just the color of one's skin. "A Tale of Two Worlds: My Life as a Proud Black Woman With White Skin" is Emily Juana Burke Orr's story of her life with 'vitiligo', a skin condition that the epidermis lose its pigmentation, turning dark colored skin white. Her stories of how people perceive her in matters of race, sometimes identified as black, sometimes identified as white - including being able to attend a Ku Klux Klan meeting and evading victimization in a race riot. An eye opening and intriguing look at race, "A Tale of Two Worlds" is a fascinating read and a highly recommended addition to academic and community library collections race relations and social issues reference collections.

5 comments about Judging Thomas: The Life and Times of Clarence Thomas.

1. such as "For a different view than the first four I see here, November 16, 2004 Reviewer: Felix (Silicon Valley).....see the review by Randall Kennedy for the Washington Post"
   
   Why, Felix? The WP is one of the three worst newspapers in the USA, along with the L.A. Times and the N.Y Times. These "newspapers" are no more than left wing propaganda machines. They proved themselves to be far left during the election. Every day the WP prints whatever they can think up against the President and anyone in the administration, and almost never anything good that is going on in the country, or the good that has been done in Afghanistan, and Iraq. You don't know about the good because the "People's Propaganda" machines will not print it.
   
   Of course, the WP will find, or dream up, or twist, or misinterpret, or tell half-truths and lies about Clarence Thomas. That's what they live for; to tell all the worst things they can dream up about every conservative. Did you see these major newspapers support Clinton's accusers like they supported the lying Anita Hill? Anyone could watch Anita and tell she was a liar; it was all over her face, and was apparent in her demeanor. That woman had one objective, and every left-wing wacko, radical feminist, socialist, communist,and liar on the planet tried to support her false claims that she twisted into ugly lies about innocent events.
   
   These "reviews" are a waste of time. The left-wingers will write bad reviews and say the good ones don't help them. The conservatives will support Thomas, but at least they aren't lying.
   
   Watch what the man does, and how he lives, then judge from what's true, not what's jaded opinion.



2. I was left wanting more. I felt the book was written to achieve a certain number of pages instead of providing me information about Judge Thomas. The book often provides far to much information about the people passing through his life. I was not interested in reading so much informatin about the people who employ him or the people he met on his life journey.
   
   The book did address some of Judge Thomas early social ideas, but the book seem to be written without much input from Judge Thomas. I did not get the sense that I knew Judge Thomas after I completed the book.



3. Under the link above "product details" to "see all editorial reviews," see the review by Randall Kennedy for the Washington Post



4. Several years ago, The Weekly Standard ran a cover story calling Clarence Thomas the most powerful conservative in America. He truly was at that time.
   
   Foskett does a fair job stripping away the controversy and polemic to examine the man, his background, and his life. There is obviously the story of Thomas' confirmation to the Supreme Court, and a fair amount of time is devoted to those few weeks in the Justice's life. Far more interesting than that is his life before Washington, and before the political appointments, while he was still growing up under the stern eye of his grandfather, Myers Anderson.
   
   Without understanding the world that incubated Thomas it is impossible to understand why he could view the world and the American judicial system as he does. To understand Clarence Thomas more fully one must understand Myers Anderson, the dominant force in his early years. Foskett accounts for the apartheid caste system of the Jim Crow south that trapped and warped so many people.
   
   Passionate reactions about Thomas will exist for a long, long time. His ideas stand on their own merit. This book truly gives the reader a glimpse at the humanity of a man who thinks for himself and will set the judicial tenor of the court for years to come.



5. Few people are dispassionate about Clarence Thomas, but the author manages to hold passion in abeyance in presenting a well balanced -- and in many ways, inspirational -- review of the Supreme Court Justice's life and times. Love him or loathe him, it's hard for any reader not to come away from this book with enhanced respect for Thomas. . . for his success in overcoming obstacles in Jim Crow southern Georgia; for his equanimity and courage during the Senate confirmation process; and for the personal warmth and compassion that he masks behind a taciturn, often dour public demeanor. The author goes to great lengths to show how the values forged by Thomas's grandfather, Myers Anderson -- self-reliance, industriousness, relentless work ethic, pride, individual charity, skepticism toward government -- have helped to inform the Justice's worldview. The reader does not have to march in lockstep with Thomas's views to admire his Horatio Alger lifestory.

No comments about His Sacred Honor.

5 comments about Damages.

1. I am a college student studying to be a medical assistant. I had to write an essay on a specific medical lawsuit for my class "Medical Law and Ethics." I have not read a nonfiction book in years, but once I started reading this book I could not put it down. It is so stimulating, exciting, and brilliant. Mr. Werth had little to work with since there was no court room drama. He did a spectacular job with the resources he had. He is indeed an intelligent writer. I wish him well.



2. Well written, a gripping story and balanced. I am teaching a course on medical malpractice at the local law school. This book is the text. It provides a frame work to discuss numerous issues and the potential impact - or more accurately non-impact - of many tort reform proposals.



3. This is a wonderful book for anyone involved in the litigation process or anyone involved in the health care field.

   I am a structured settlement consultant who works with personal injury attorneys and some insurance companies. This is the best book I have ever seen about the process.

   I have purchased over 200 copies of the book to give to trial attorneys, claims professionals and other structured settlement professionals. All love the book. It reads like a novel.

   Don McNay...




4. I'm a medical doctor embroiled in a battle to expose a corrupt insurance company engaged in racketeering. I think (and have been told) that this is a story that needs telling. There are lots of twists and turns, corporate and government cover-ups, some drama, many sympathetic characters in the form of other victims of the abuses of this company, and lots of anguish. Thousands are suffering and some committing suicide because of the actions of this company. It will take me years to get to court, if that is even possible. Except for the Internet contacts I've made and a few friends, I am working practically alone. The legal profession has all but abandoned the public and their actions in covering these crimes up with confidentiality agreements, for those who can even afford lawyers, is allowing it to continue and worsen and spread, like a cancer.



5. This is a wonderfully written and wonderfully worthwhile look into the healthcare and legal communities...it is a book that you won't be able to put down. The characters are well presented and you will find "knowing" them will enrich your own life.

2 comments about Fight Back and Win CD: My Thirty-year Fight Against Injustice--and How You Can Win Your Own Battles.

1. 
   Gloria is an inspiration she sets forth Morality, Equality, Human Rights and makes you want to stand up and FIGHT for your rights! Dont Back Down!! Let Life's lessons guide you to others awareness and resolutions!



2. I bought this book for my sister. She has five kids ( all boys) and is a elementry school teacher, so she does not have much time to read adult books. Having the book on CD let her realx and enjoy her time in the car after and before picking up the kids. She said it was very good book and was amazed at all the things Gloria Allred has over come. If I had bought her the hardcover I don't think she would have been able to enjoy the book as much as she did.

5 comments about Chutzpah.

1. Mr. Chutzpah is a Harvard Law professor. Called on his attributing the Joan Peters' awful neologism "turnspeak" to Orwell Mr. Chutzpah publicly attributed it to Huxley. The less said about the (lack of) erudition of Harvard Law professors the better it seems.
   
   Dean Elena Kagan of Harvard, a tireless defender of Mr. Chutzpah, who seems to have never walked when she could crawl instead, may wish to revise Harvard advertising to put in disclaimers with respect to the law school: that Harvard's general reputation notwithstanding, she makes no assurances as to the quality of present faculty like Mr. Chutzpah.
   
   Mr. Chutzpah, when he is not defending pornographers and the like of O.J. Simpson, works with his lawyers at Cravath, Swain and Moore to suppress books critical of him and his shoddy "scholarship". Such as Norman G. Finkelstein's devastating takedown Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History.



2. Norman Finkelstein conclusively demonstrates that Dershowitz is a plagiarizer and that his claims about Israel's "superb" human rights record are complete bunk. All reputable human rights organizations support Finkelstein's arguments and not Dershowitz's. Dershowitz's book merits a minus 10, but the lowest grade one can give it is one star. The fact that one can find copies of this book for sale for 1 cent indicate its scholarly and moral usefulness. Dershowitz is now involved in a concerted campaign to have Finkelstein shut down, pressuring Harvard Bookstore and the Barnes and Noble bookstore at DePaul University in Chicago to cancel speaking engagements by Finkelstein. Harvard cancelled its invitation for fear of "economic retaliation," Barnes and Noble said the book was "too controversial," and invited Dershowitz to speak about his "book" instead.



3. Plenty of Jews exhibit chutzpah (nerve). But there is a flip side to this, the fear of "shanda fur de goyim" (embarrassment in front of the gentiles).
   
   Dershowitz analyzes the discrimination he's seen against Jews. In some places, it is non-existent. In others, it is significant. In yet others, it is striking. He begins with his experiences in trying to find employment as a summer hire in various law firms. Of course, discrimination against people on the basis of race, religion, gender, and (if known) sexual preference is now much less than it used to be. But we see some of the history of it among law firms and at Harvard.
   
   One issue that I found intriguing was that of the Carmelite convent at Auschwitz. Now, I do not see any reason for Jews or anyone else to consider Auschwitz, of all places, holy ground. But I am well aware that many people do consider it as such, and I respect their views on the matter. And it was up to the Catholic authorities whether or not to make a deal with the Jews to not have a Carmelite convent at Auschwitz. But once the Catholics made that deal and a bunch of nuns broke it, a rabbi and six other Jews were totally within their rights to ask the nuns to explain what they were doing there, and even "trespass" on convent grounds to pray. And it was certainly out of line for Polish Cardinal Glemp to make a totally wild and preposterous accusation, namely that these Jews were trying to murder the nuns and destroy the convent. I think Dershowitz was right to take the case against Glemp for defamation here.
   
   There is an good chapter about Zionism. That includes a discussion of Jewish antizionism. Dershowitz explains the pressure on Jews to be antizionist and to oppose Israel as Jews. He thinks they are wrong to do so. I agree. I think everyone ought to support Israel's (or any other nation's) right to exist as a human being, or oppose it as a human being! Or be neutral as a human being.
   
   I recommend this book.



4. I was initially engrossed while reading about the history of the Dershowitz family and their lives in Brooklyn. As the book progressed, it was more like a very long "rant" about anti-Semitism, and the miserable plight of American Jews. As an American Jew living in the rural western US, I cannot relate to the discrimination described and felt by the author. As with any religion outside the mainstream of the popular culture, Jews will always be considered as "different". We set ourselves apart from others by our values, moral beliefs, and our observances.



5. Overall, I am a huge fan of Dershowitz's books. I thoroughly enjoyed the Best Defense, From Genesis to Justice, and even his novel, A Just Revenge. I felt, though, that Dershowitz went a little overboard with his views of Jews in America. In many ways, I am almost embarassed to be viewed in the same light as him (As a Jew) because of his extreme views. He made it seem as if the world was out to get Jews, even in America. He does make many good points about Jewish identity in America, but to me he comes across as whining more than discussing.

   He does use some great arguments and has a pretty clear account of Jewish history in America. His description of his family and neighborhood is nice to read to understand where he grew up and what his background is. I especially liked his description of his own family as I was reminded in many ways of my own.

   I gave the book 2 stars but that is compared with his other books. It is not a bad book or a bad read. In many ways, I found it very informative but I would choose one of his other books rather than this one.

5 comments about A Righteous Cause: The Life of William Jennings Bryan.

1. William Jennings Bryan is a rather interesting and paradoxical figure in American political history. In this man one can observe an apparently sincere political fighter who supported many progressive issues vital to the rural and urban working classes of the day, a vanishing type of politician, then as now. Although he was the Democratic Party candidate for President in 1896 I do not believe that party would be his home today, nor would his progressive politics resonant with the substance of Democratic politics today. It is odd that over a century later Bryan's politics would far to the left of what passes for the Democratic center today. At the same time we see the limits that even a sincerely religious man can bring to political discourse. His Christian fundamentalism never let him really fight to the end for the program of agrarian relief and industrial reform that he articulated so well.
   
   Mr. Cherny's mainly admiring biography does much to reintroduce the events surrounding this important figure who today, if remembered at all, is mainly known for being on the wrong side of evolution question in the Scopes trial. That is part of his late history and although that controversy has heated up again today Bryan is still on the wrong side of the evolution question. However, that issue does not define what he represented in American history. Rather, one must look at the populist, agrarian forces in revolt and the program Bryan tried to implement in his bid for power.
   
   Bryan political career represented the last dying gasp of the agrarian revolt that flared up in the America Midwest and West in the last third of the 19th century. That such a revolt, left to its own devices, was doomed in the face of the rise of industrial production; the increased mechanization of agriculture and the dominance of finance capital do not make that revolt any less poignant. The question faced by Bryan and any other potential leader was the manner in which the revolt would be harnessed to win power and what allies would be sought to fight against the ravages of capitalist expansion.
   
   Mr. Bryan took an essentially parliamentary, traditional road by trying to use the Democratic Party as a vehicle for social change. Many later politicians have also broken their teeth trying that same strategy for progressive social change. In 1896, and perhaps earlier, such a road was futile. In short, Mr. Bryan could have led an independent third party revolt, based on the already existing People's Party (which in his early career Bryan had been closely allied with) linked with the industrial working classes of the Northeast and Midwest.
   
   This strategy was left to other forces that later formed of the Socialist party in 1901. Mr. Bryan's political trajectory, however, was not to join that fight but basically moved to the right culminating in support for the suppression of radicals in World War I. We have that seen that political phenomena before, as well. That said, this is an important book that details one type of parliamentary strategy still followed today by many progressives about the way to bring social change. That today it has produced meager returns does not lessen the interest it for this writer as applied in an earlier time. At that time it at least made some rational political sense.



2. I agree with the gentleman from Missouri that no writer yet has fully evoked Bryan. This particular book covers his life well but without digging heavily into psychology and I'm fine with that. The film "Inherit the Wind" made far too much of the fictionalized Bryan's endless talking and eating in some ham-headed attempt to conjure up an oral fixation or something. In the late Fifties to mid-Sixties every socially conscious filmmaker was a psychologist. Today, the same can be said about biographers.
   
   The problem with Bryan, at least in terms of making him into something sensational, was that he was a paragon of virtues from an earlier time, a time when when, well, humility, modesty, temperance, focus, honesty, forgiveness, and a lot of other now-unfamilar and boring concepts were considered virtues. Oh, Bryan was ambitious, and he enjoyed being adored by crowds but it wasn't the ambition of Cheney or the craving for adoration of Clinton, at least not in any dreary sense we'd understand. Bryan made his impact by being Bryan, by speaking to people, by articulating their dreams, by often being an effective politician. He did that so well that up till fairly recently he still had mythic status, a great orator who was still spoken of with some reverance as late as the 1960's (I doubt nowadays 1 in 10,000 would even know the name).
   
   I think ultimately historians have the same problem with Bryan as music biographers have with Franz Joseph Haydn--one of the greatest of all composers but a fairly normal and healthy man whose life lacked wild stories and titilating anecdotes. Personally, I find biographies of people like Haydn and Bryan enjoyable (this book at hand was very refreshing and I've found over the years that virtually everything from the University of Oklahoma Press usually is). It's nice reading about accomplished folks who are fairly normal. It's interesting that Bryan and Roosevelt, two of the giants of that era, both had steady and rewarding marriages with highly intelligent and accomplished women, both had families, both had lives and interests outside of politics. There's a rough definition of "healthy" lurking in there somewhere.



3. This brief, concise review of the life of William Jennings Bryan is a quick and easy way to familiarize yourself with this important American politician. While Bryan's only official politrical positions was as a two-term congressman and secretary of state for a little over two years, he was one of the most influential politicians for the thirty years he was active in Democratic politics. The three-time losing presidential candidate popularized (thought did not originate) many of the progressive issues of the period, championing many causes that eventually became law. Examples of this include the direct election of senators, the right to vote for women, and regulation of business and industry.
   
   Through his powerful belief in Christian virtue, Bryan constantly championed the rights of the least among him. While his strict fundamentalist views eventually humiliated him at the end of his life by way of the "Scopes Monkey Trial," it was this belief in the decency of human life that drove him for so long. This book gives a brief and succinct discussion of the great politician's life.



4. "A Righteous Cause" is a very solid study of the life of "The Great Commoner". Prof. Cherny presents a very fair and balanced view of his life and the events that he played a role in. I recommend this to anyone with a desire to know more about the extremely important figure from the turn of the 20th Century. Sadly there is not a good rendering on Bryan's life. Nothing that I've found lifts this obviously charismatic person off the page. I've found good brief bios in various books, but no master work yet.



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

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

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

No comments about The Judges of the New York Court of Appeals: A Biographical History.