John Marshall and the Cases that United the States of America

Albert Beveridge's classic, highly sympathetic biography of John Marshall long dominated Americans' understanding of the great Chief Justice. For generations, this winner of a 1920 Pulitzer Prize was the starting point for both popular and scholarly interpretations of Marshall, and it was second to the justice's opinions in shaping accounts of American constitutional history. Contemporary readers put off by the length of Senator Beveridge's four-volume work have Ronald Rotunda to thank for this judicious abridgment, which will make the book accessible to a new generation.