| Edition |
First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition. |
| Description |
viii, 609 pages: illustrations, portraits, plates, photographs ; 24 cm |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 567-571) and index. |
| Contents |
A father's prophecy -- Journey into the heart of slavery -- Faith and the founding fathers -- Dread and Dred Scott -- The soul of Kentucky -- John vs. John -- "Knowledge is power" -- John, Robert and Benjamin -- "Do-do take care" -- Destiny -- Standing alone -- "The colonel has indeed surprised us" -- In trusts we trust -- Requiem for the Gilded Age -- The humblest and most powerful -- The walls of segregation -- The Constitution follows the flag -- Freedom in the workplace -- "I am a innocent man" -- "Ever may his name be said in reverence" -- Self-inflicted wounds -- "A vicarious atonement" -- "Justice Harlan concurring" -- "Our basic legal creed". |
| Summary |
They say that history is written by the victors. But not in the case of the most famous dissenter on the Supreme Court. Almost a century after his death, it was John Marshall Harlan's words that helped end segregation, and gave us our civil rights and our modern economic freedom. But his legacy would not have been possible without the courage of Robert Harlan, a slave who John's father raised like a son in the same household. After the Civil War, Robert emerges as a political leader. With Black people holding power in the Republican Party, it is Robert who helps John land his appointment to the Supreme Court. At first, John is awed by his fellow justices, but the country is changing. Northern whites are prepared to take away black rights to appease the South. Giant trusts are monopolizing entire industries. Against this onslaught, the Supreme Court seemed all too willing to strip away civil rights and invalidate labor protections. As case after case comes before the court, challenging his core values, John makes a fateful decision: He breaks with his colleagues in fundamental ways, becoming the nation's prime defender of the rights of Black people, immigrant laborers, and people in distant lands occupied by the United States... Spanning from the Civil War to the Civil Rights movement and beyond, The Great Dissenter is an epic rendering of the American legal system's greatest failures and most inspiring successes. -- Amazon. |
| Subject |
Harlan, John Marshall, 1833-1911.
|
|
United States. Supreme Court -- Biography.
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| Subject(S) |
Judges -- United States -- Biography.
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|
Biographies.
|
| ISBN |
9781501188206 (hardcover) |
|
1501188208 (hardcover) |
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Other Resources
