I just took a class with Professor Horwitz of the same title here at Harvard, and this book clearly summarizes the major themes of the Warren Court. It is wonderfully written, moves very fast, but there are details given about this wonderful era of change.

The book centers on the Warren Court's view of substantive democracy as a central organizing principle for the many decisions. It espouses the ideal that while responding to times, the Court also had higher ideals and used these two together.

The book works through major case areas and is divided as such, looking first at the race relations and civil rights cases, then moving on to the response to McCarthyism with Free Speech, and views of Rights and Democracy. Each section builds on each other until Horwitz's great theme is revealed.

It really gives the reader a great understanding of the Court, and one can come out of it feeling great. It works well with the course and would work very well on its own too.

Professor Horowitz provides a very accessible accounting of the Warren Court's impact on America and American jurisprudence. For those with legal training, this short history puts all the doctrines learned in law school-the void for vagueness application to the First Amendment, the Carolene Products Footnote Four analysis-into a tidy, compact context. For the non-lawyer, Horowitz avoids the legalese and shows how the Warren Court rulings affected the course of American events. Horowitz examines the court's impact in several areas: civil rights, democractic principles of governance, free speech, and the incorporation doctrine as applied to criminal procedure. Horowitz truly has admiration for his subject, but that admiration is not unqualified, and he takes the court to task for buckling under McCarthyism and for not standing up for its First Amendment principles, although Horowitz clearly blames one justice, Justice Frankfurter, for the court's reluctance to take on McCarthy. An excellent summary of the Warren Court, its decisions, and the justices who together made up its collective personality.

Whether liberal or conservative, man or woman, religious or atheist, all Americans should read and will love this book. An insightful look at America and our Republic, Earl Warren's A Republic if you Can Keep It is one of the greatest political books ever written. I recommend it to all Americans, especially at a time when our Republic is tested by the will of the people.

This is probably the best book out there on Earl Warren, covering his life in politics and at the Supreme Court. Ed Cray does a good job explaining the roots of Warren's political beliefs and how he used his political background to exert such a strong influence on the Supreme Court.

Unfortunately, Ed Cray doesn't follow up on at least two issues: Warren's friendships with J. Edgar Hoover and William Knowland. According to the book, when Warren was in California state government he became such good friends with J. Edgar Hoover that he called Hoover "Jay"- yet it seems hard to imagine that Warren's friendship with Hoover survived some of his court decisions. Perhaps it did, but Cray doesn't address the issue. Similarly, it seems that Warren's liberal court decisions would have impacted his friendship with conservative Senator William Knowland, but the book doesn't talk about this, either.

To write a comprehensive book on the life of Earl Warren and include the numerous controversial court decisions would produce a volume so thick, reading it would be exhaustive-and probably boring. Ed Cray has successfully limited this biography to the details of Warren's life without dragging the reader through the typical grandparent and parent's life stories. His overview of the major court decisions, their impact on society and some of the Court's inner battles have been successfully handled.

The reader should know however, that this is not an unbiased book. Cray worships Warren and is very reluctant to criticize him. (The author takes Warren to task over Warren's support of Japanese internment in WWII but I suspect this criticism early on in the book is due to Warren later regret in his involvement.) Among the dedications, is "To Civil Libertarians All"-while there is nothing wrong with that, it points out the author's political bias that is so evident in his writing. Conservatives on the court and in Warren's earlier political life come across badly (especially Felix Frankfurter) and by the end of the book I was cynical as to why Cray constantly referred to Hugo Black as the Alabaman. (Isn't it Alabamian?) None of the other justices were so oft named by the State's origin.

If you love Warren, you'll love this book. If you want an objective and critical look into Warren's life, you might end up frustrated at the author's attempt to over-glorify his subject. Nevertheless, it's still an excellent book.

Earl Warren was one of the greatest Americans of the 20th Century, and Cray's biography does justice for him. Warren led the Supreme Court from 1953-1969, perhaps the most turbulent period in American history outside the Civil War. His rulings have shaped modern jurisprudence and, despite their controversial nature when they were issued, have repeatedly shown their wisdom since. The author also spends a lot of time on Warren's early political career as a District Attorney, Governor of California and failed Vice Presidential candidate in 1948. Overall, this is a fascinating and well-written biography.

I like this book alot and the guys who wrote it are super knowledgable. There is a fluorescent Mineral Museum on the net at Wordcraft.net. It mentions this book.

All in all a disappointing and often confusing book. The historical account of the Warren Court is fine, as it goes, and if you don't know anything about what the Warren Court was and what it did, this book may help with that. But there were already accounts of this sort available; and Powe's justification for writing a new one -- that he wanted it to act as some sort of corrective against the popular view of the W.C. (personified here by Owen Fiss) as an autonomous revolutionary body -- seems unconvincing, considering how unpersuasive his case against Fiss ultimately is. Indeed I wouldn't be surprised to find Fiss someday citing Powe's book as evidence in favour of his own position. Add to that the serious problems with the writing (it's like a Brian de Palma action film: every once in a while there's a brilliant set piece, but then you have to lumber through dull exposition until you get to the next one) and you end up with a book that should have been fascinating, but that is, at best, mildly interesting.

The dust jacket blurbs call the substance of this book, "definitive," "seminal," "the best in a generation," and "a tour de force." The prose is called, "elegant," "lively, at times riveting." They weren't kidding. The book is great.

If you love(d) former Chief Justice Earl Warren you'll love this book. It's a PR piece and nothing more. Pollack attempts to glorify Warren without raising more than a sentence or two of criticism. If you would like to learn as much as possible about Warren, but don't want to read more than one Warren book, pick a different biography.