This book is a good introduction to the life of Clarence Darrow. It spans all his major cases and leaves the reader with awe for a man whose ability as an attorney in the Dr. Oscar Sweet case in Detroit, Michigan in 1925 was as if God had descended heaven from Heaven to win the freedom of a black professional who was accused of murder in an America that already had witnessed the Tulsa, Oklahoma and St. Louis race riots. His defense of the poor in the anthracite coal case of 1902 and the rioters in the Haymarket case stand as models for Americans of any age. The only weakness in the book is that his addresses to juries are not included. Clarence Darrow is as important to Americans as Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Delano Roosevelt were in the eras of the Civil War and the Great Depression. I recommend this book for all Americans of all ages. He was a defender of the poor and a defender of the values and ethics of American society. Elliot Spitzer, the Attorney General of the State of New York, is some ways bears resemblance to Clarence Darrow. I recommend the book highly, the reverence I have for the life of Clarence Darrow is huge only for God do I have more.

Clarence Darrow was a very interesting man, however history may view him. I found this biography by Irving Stone to be very educational. Darrow was involved in some of the most famous trials around the turn of the century that defined labor laws, capital punishment laws as well as laws defining religious discrimination with the well known Scopes Evolution Case over the teaching of the Darwin theory of evolution in the classroom. This famous case known as the 'Monkey' trials pitted fundamentalists against more liberal evolutionists in a landmark case that defined freedom and equality of religious teaching throughout the United States. Darrow was a defense attorney, and his viewpoint on representing a client was to simply provide the best defense possible. This did not always go with the popular opinion of society in his day, and he was often hated by many for some of the people he defended in the courtroom. I think it is notable that in many of his more famous cases and not so famous he was never paid, as he defended people who had no money. In this way he showed a compassion for his fellow man which one does not often associate with the profession of lawyers in the modern day. As I read this biography, I found myself many times not agreeing with Darrow's viewpoints and decisions to defend certain people, including the famous Loeb & Leopold Case. I marveled at his final solution to plead guilty in the defense of the McNamaras Case in 1911, a point of integrity after learning his client was truly guilty. This case cost his the support and friendship with organized labor parties after over thirty years, as well as resulted in a massive attack on him personally, but he weathered the storm and carried onward. However, I was able at the end to reflect on this man's tenacity to his own integrity to follow what he believed was right, despite popular opinion. His sense of morals were different from my own, and I would be untruthful to say I completely agreed with Darrow. I did however find myself respecting him for impact he had on our country's history, and his exposing of the industrial abuses that paralleled slave camps in the late 1800's definitely shined the light on man's inhumanity to man. All in all I found this to be a very interesting biography about a very interesting man. I think anyone interested in American history, particularly that of the history of organized labor in our country should definitely read this one. This is a great read. Darrow having been a well known public speaker in his day, delivered some of the most profound speaches inside and outside the courtroom. Many of his famous defense final arguments are still studied today in many law schools, but most notable is the fact that he delivered many of these speeches without the aide of notes or other written material. Many people who heard these speeches were included in this book, and consistently he is remembered as having really had a way of moving an audience and changing their viewpoints in doing so. Irving Stone really did his background research in compiling this book, including reading many of Darrow's own private papers, court records, interviewing people who knew Darrow and studying newspapers from the time period. I think anyone would find this book facinating from a purely historical perspective. It is too bad this book is currently out of print, but it is worth searching used book stores or searching Amazon's out-of-print services to get a copy and read it.

A good history of the times. I hope this book will inspire you. Eric...

I realize this is a textbook, and as such, I didn't expect it to be scintilating. This text, however, did not even meet up to my limited expectations- the chapters are way too long and attempt to conver too much material. It would have been useful if the authors attempted to break up the material into smaller, more digestible bits. All in all, this book is extremely dry.

I don't know why, but I didn't enjoy reading this book. It didn't seem right. I guess I'm not a big fan of marketing. However, concepts were explained quite well and overall it was informative. Unlike many business related books this one did have negative examples, complete with explanations what, how, and why something went wrong. For that I rate it at 4 stars.

I used this book for my Con Law I and II course, so I feel that I know this book pretty well. For Con Law I, the book was absolutely TERRIBLE. The cases are edited down so much that they are borderline incoherent, such as in Marbury v. Madison and McCullough v. Maryland. There is a great deal of "commentary" in between cases from the authors regarding the information they edited out within the cases, but the structure of learning what was in the case AFTER reading through the case is confusing and time consuming, forcing you to retrace a lot of your steps needlessly. The bottom line on this book for Con Law I is to buy the Legalines supplement for this book, and read it religiously after every case. Chemerinsky's supplement is a great deal of assistance as well, because Con Law I is much more confusing for students using this book (from inquiring through other classmates using different texts). For Con Law II, the subject matter gets 100 times more interesting, but the content of the book remains the same. As a reviewer previously stated, the editing of Brown v. Board of Education is absolutely unacceptable. Such a landmark case fit into four pages? Ridiculous! However, there will be a lot of stimulating class discussion to supplement the extremely edited-down cases presented in Con Law II. My best advice? Buy supplements and keep yourself on top of what you're reading before you get too lost, and make notecards to keep the tests for different circumstances (like justiciability, commerce clause, dormant commerce clause, etc.) straight.

A good starting Con Law book, however, as the title of this review states, it was too well edited. Crucial facts surrounding key cases like Marbery were not included. The omission makes it easier to read through the voluminous pages, but it's not enough. The reader will *have* to supplement the text with strong in-class notes or a commercial text/outline. There are some key cases simply 'missing' and the coverage of prominent cases like "Brown" is simply insufficient. Comparison and analysis of how one case indirectly may overrule another is also lacking. Overall, it is not a BAD book, the authors probably need to cut some dead weight so they have room to include the missing pieces. Also -- a word to the wise -- since the current Supreme Court is the most active, it is essential for the student to keep up with the latest decsions.