Louis D. Brandeis: A Life

This book, a volume in the "Library of American Biography" series, offers a good introduction to the public career of Louis D. Brandeis. Urofsky's argument is that Brandeis's legendary Progressivism was born of the essentially conservative values of the Boston Brahmin tradition, with its stress on social improvement and the obligations of the elite. This led him to embrace reform work early in his career, an opportunity made possible by his success as a lawyer and the ability to work pro bono that it afforded. Urofsky sees many of the characteristics of Brandeis' career both as a lawyer and as a reformer within this early activism, including a use of facts as the basis for change and the importance of education as a means of convincing the broader public of the value of the proposed solution. As Brandeis's reputation as a reformer grew with such successes as his brief in the famous Muller v. Oregon case and his campaign for savings bank life insurance, he came to play a prominent role in the Progressive movement at the national level. This culminated with his support for Woodrow Wilson during the latter's presidential campaign in 1912, during which Wilson advocated an anti-monopoly "New Freedom" program based on Brandeis' ideas. Though efforts to make Brandeis attorney-general after Wilson's victory failed, Brandeis remained an influential advisor until the president nominated him to the Supreme Court in 1916. Brandeis's nomination proved controversial, not, as Urofsky argues, because of Brandeis's heritage (he was Jewish, though a non-practicing one) but because of opposition from conservatives and interest groups harmed by Brandeis' earlier reform campaigns. Yet in the end, Wilson's expert politicking gained the necessary votes, and Brandeis became the newest justice four months after his nomination. Though now a member of the highest court in the land, Urofsky states that Brandeis remained involved in a new reform cause - the quest for a Jewish homeland. He summarizes Brandeis' involvement in Zionism well, noting both his role in unifying the various small Zionist groups into a national organization and his subsequent differences with Chaim Weizmann. Nevertheless, this did not distract the justice from his work on the Court, where, as Urofsky argues, his jurisprudence reflected the same reliance on facts that his work as a lawyer and reformer had. Though often viewed as a dissenter, Urofsky sees the New Deal as embodying the triumph of many of Brandeis's views, thus granting one last success before his retirement in 1939 and his death two years later. Throughout this book, the author offers a succinct analysis of Brandeis to explain many of the aspects of his life. While lacking the detail of a larger work, this is a biography that nonetheless succeeds in offering a good understanding of the man and the role he played in American history.