The People V. Clarence Darrow: The Bribery Trial of America's Greatest Lawyer

Unlike the leader of the English Revolution - Oliver Cromwell - Clarence Darrow spent much of his life working hard to build a mythical image of himself to conceal the fairly despicable character that he really was, and would almost certainly never have told a portrait painter to portray him as he really was - "warts and all". So it would certainly have brought him no pleasure or satisfaction to read this book, which goes a long way towards revealing his many failings. In respect of my description of him as "despicable", for example, this was a man whose wife, Ruby, stood(or more literally sat)by him through the three months of the first bribery trail, supporting and encouraging him when he was at his lowest ebb, and at one point suffering a breakdown herself. And what did she get in return? The trial finished on a Saturday when the jury declared Darrow to be "not guilty". Which Darrow celebrated the next day by going for a drive in the country with his mistress - Mary Field - and two of their friends (page 407)! The author does not tell us what Ruby Darrow did to pass the time that day. Indeed, the wonder of this book is that it got written at all, given the power of Darrow's self-aggrandisement, even today. Especially given that the author is so obviously still a devoted fan of Darrow, and despite all the facts he has uncovered, still does his best to excuse Darrow's behaviour. Though given that Cowan was co-founder of the Clarence Darrow foundation this piece of cognitive dissonance is maybe not entirely surprising. Anyone planning to read this book, and I believe it is indeed worth reading, should be aware that it is a BIG book - 445 pages plus extensive note, a bibliography and an index, which take it up to 546 pages in all. And for a very good reason. Although the book is subtitled: "The bribery trial of America's greatest [sic] lawyer", Cowan actually reaches back to the earlier trial of "Big" Bill Hayward (1907) as he begins to set the scene. He then goes on to describe the MacNamara case in considerable detail, and Darrow's part in those events, not only to explain how the bribery case came about, but also in order to give a really in-depth picture of how Darrow functioned as a lawyer, frequently excusing his own criminal actions - destroying evidence, bribing witnesses, etc. - on the grounds that the alleged wrongdoings of his opponents, and the rights of his clients to a "fair" trail. In short, in Darrow's mind it seems that the "ends" justified virtually any "means". The problem any non-commited reader faces, as Alan Dershowitz points out, elsewhere, is that anyone who takes the attitude that Darrow held, and acts upon it, does not benefit or help to improve a corrupt system - they merely compound the corruption, however much they may benefit their own clients. Part of the Darrow myth is that his concern was always to help the weak and the poor or at least, as in Cowan's quote: "I have represented the strong and the weak

A friend recommended this book as "the best book no one has ever read," and was he ever right. I have always been fascinated by Clarence Darrow and have come to view him as almost a mythical figure, "the lawyer for the damned." The beauty of this book is that it paints a much more human picture of Darrow, highlighting the bad as well as the good, but without in any way being malicious. My admiration for Darrow was still intact after the book, but my understanding of him is now much fuller and realistic. Cowan's account of the trial of Darrow for trying to bribe jurors is riveting and dramatic. I hope that some potential readers find this review, otherwise the possibility arises of this becoming the most favorable review that was never read.

This has been one of my favorite books for years.This work is intensely engaging on any number of levels. It discusses Darrow's trial for jury bribery, but places that trial at the very center of fascinating stories._The People v. Clarence Darrow_ works as biography, writing about a pivotal moment in Darrow's career and in his life. It works as history, as this trial was at the center of the early war of capital vs. labor. It works as drama, as Cowan convincingly portrays the dozens of fascinating people involved in this trial in one way or another. And it works as a legal drama. The legal techniques, the arguments, and the absolute importance of this trial to Darrow's life and to the cause of labor generally make this one of the trials of the century, and the story is gripping throughout.Finally, Cowan just does a great job with the craft of writing. The characters are real, the story unfolds dramatically. I was never bored, and actually looked forward to reading each new chapter. As you can tell, I can't recommend this book enough.