Louis D. Brandeis: American Prophet

by Jeffrey Rosen

Overview

From the prizewinning Jewish Lives series, a riveting new examination of Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis, the leading progressive justice of his era

"Concise and sympathetic. . . . Mr. Rosen persuasively makes his case that recognizing Brandeis as an 'American prophet' . . . 'seems more important today than ever.'"—Adam Cohen, New York Times

"An ideal introduction to Brandeis’ life for general readers."—Booklist (starred review)

According to Jeffrey Rosen, Louis D. Brandeis was “the Jewish Jefferson,” the greatest critic of what he called “the curse of bigness,” in business and government, since the author of the Declaration of Independence. Published to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of his Supreme Court confirmation on June 1, 1916, Louis D. Brandeis: American Prophet argues that Brandeis was the most farseeing constitutional philosopher of the twentieth century. In addition to writing the most famous article on the right to privacy, he also wrote the most important Supreme Court opinions about free speech, freedom from government surveillance, and freedom of thought and opinion. And as the leader of the American Zionist movement, he convinced Woodrow Wilson and the British government to recognize a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Combining narrative biography with a passionate argument for why Brandeis matters today, Rosen explores what Brandeis, the Jeffersonian prophet, can teach us about historic and contemporary questions involving the Constitution, monopoly, corporate and federal power, technology, privacy, free speech, and Zionism.

About Jewish Lives: 

Jewish Lives is a prizewinning series of interpretative biography designed to explore the many facets of Jewish identity. Individual volumes illuminate the imprint of Jewish figures upon literature, religion, philosophy, politics, cultural and economic life, and the arts and sciences. Subjects are paired with authors to elicit lively, deeply informed books that explore the range and depth of the Jewish experience from antiquity to the present.

In 2014, the Jewish Book Council named Jewish Lives the winner of its Jewish Book of the Year Award, the first series ever to receive this award.

More praise for Jewish Lives:

"Excellent" –New York Times

"Exemplary" –Wall Street Journal

"Distinguished" –New Yorker

"Superb" –The Guardian

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780300158670
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Publication date:	06/01/2016
Series:	Jewish Lives
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Jeffrey Rosen is President and CEO of the National Constitution Center, professor of law at the George Washington University Law School, and a contributing editor of the Atlantic.

Table of Contents

Introduction Isaiah Jefferson 1

1 The Curse of Bigness 28

2 Other People's Money 62

3 Laboratories of Democracy 100

4 The Perfect Citizen in the Perfect State 146

Epilogue: What Would Brandeis Do? 184

Notes 209

Acknowledgments 241

Editorial Reviews

…Jeffrey Rosen's excellent Louis D. Brandeis: American Prophet…is not a full biography…but rather a concise and sympathetic exploration of Brandeis's main intellectual causes…Despite Brandeis's occasional misfires, his philosophies, as Mr. Rosen convincingly argues, speak powerfully to our times—in his views on the threat that technology poses to privacy, on the importance of pluralism and equality in the Middle East and, perhaps most of all, on economic matters. Today's polemics about what unfettered capitalism is doing to ordinary Americans…is terrain Brandeis covered, more deeply, with more cogent suggestions for reform. And his warnings about the "curse of bigness" speak powerfully to an age in which the internet appears structurally inclined to create category-killing behemoths…Most of all, what the Gospel of Brandeis offers is a conviction that fact-based analysis and enlightened policy-making can help to set the world right.

The New York Times - Adam Cohen

"A concise and sympathetic exploration of Brandeis’s main intellectual causes. . . . Mr. Rosen persuasively makes his case that recognizing Brandeis as an 'American prophet' . . . 'seems more important today than ever.'"—Adam Cohen, New York Times

"A tightly written, tightly reasoned biography aimed at readers who are not legal scholars."—Kirkus Reviews

"In this fast-moving and easily digestible chronicle, Rosen pays ample tribute to Brandeis’s achievements, which included his judicial contributions, his political activism, and his promotion of Zionism. This is an ideal introduction to Brandeis’ life for general readers."—Booklist (starred review)

“Excellent. . . . The clarity of his writing alone makes this volume worth reading.”—Britt Tevis, H-Net Reviews

"An elegant and judicious look at the extraordinary jurist whose pioneering opinions on the sanctity of privacy and the dangers of bigness remain pertinent in the era of the internet and of institutions said to be too big to fail."—Geoffrey C. Ward, author of A First-Class Temperament: The Emergence of Franklin Roosevelt

"As we debate today's issues of free speech and privacy, or wrestle with the powers of big government and corporations, we should be guided by the wisdom of Brandeis. In this insightful biography, Jeffrey Rosen shows why this visionary philosopher matters today."—Walter Isaacson, President, The Aspen Institute; Author, Benjamin Franklin, Einstein, and Steve Jobs

"Rosen's angle on Brandeis is crisp, fresh and incisive, with striking relevance to modern-day issues concerning (among other things) corporate power, the problems of big government, an economy at risk from huge financial institutions that are too big to fail, and the future of Israel as a democratic Jewish state."—Akhil Reed Amar, author of America’s Constitution: A Biography

From the Publisher

"A concise and sympathetic exploration of Brandeis’s main intellectual causes. . . . Mr. Rosen persuasively makes his case that recognizing Brandeis as an 'American prophet' 'seems more important today than ever.'"—Adam Cohen, New York Times

New York Times - Adam Cohen

"In this fast-moving and easily digestible chronicle, Rosen pays ample tribute to Brandeis’s achievements, which included his judicial contributions, his political activism, and his promotion of Zionism. This is an ideal introduction to Brandeis’ life for general readers."—Booklist, Starred Review

Booklist

“Rosen's angle on Brandeis is crisp, fresh and incisive, with striking relevance to modern-day issues concerning (among other things) corporate power, the problems of big government, an economy at risk from huge financial institutions that are too big to fail, and the future of Israel as a democratic Jewish state.”—Akhil Reed Amar, author of America’s Constitution: A Biography

Akhil Reed Amar

"As we debate today's issues of free speech and privacy, or wrestle with the powers of big government and corporations, we should be guided by the wisdom of Brandeis. In this insightful biography, Jeffrey Rosen shows why this visionary philosopher matters today."—Walter Isaacson, President, The Aspen Institute; Author, Benjamin Franklin, Einstein, and Steve Jobs

Walter Isaacson

"An elegant and judicious look at the extraordinary jurist whose pioneering opinions on the sanctity of privacy and the dangers of bigness remain pertinent in the era of the internet and of institutions said to be too big to fail."—Geoffrey C. Ward, author of A First-Class Temperament: The Emergence of Franklin Roosevelt

Geoffrey C. Ward

05/15/2016
Rosen (president & CEO, National Constitution Ctr.; law, George Washington Univ. Sch. of Law; The Most Democratic Branch) makes a noteworthy contribution to this series. His compact yet insightful book frames Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis (1856–1941) as an "American Prophet," as proclaimed in the subtitle. While the biography explores and explicates a number of Brandeis's major judicial opinions such as Erie v. Tompkins, it creates an expansive view of Brandeis's life in its totality. Thus, Brandeis was much more than a distinguished jurist; he was a prophet and philosopher in the Jeffersonian democratic tradition. As articulated in the first chapter, "The Curse of Bigness," Brandeis abhorred mammoth corporations and financial institutions. Indeed, he wrote the volume, Other People's Money, in which he argues for antitrust regulation. Moreover, Brandeis embraced Zionism and became active in the movement to create "the perfect citizen in the perfect state" of Palestine. Finally, his opinions profoundly influenced his successors, such as Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Justice Elena Kagan. VERDICT Perfect for readers who desire a concise biography to supplement Melvin I. Urofsky's Louis D. Brandeis: A Life.—Lynne Maxwell, West Virginia Univ. Coll. of Law Lib., Morgantown

Library Journal

2016-03-14
In the latest installment of the publisher's Jewish Lives series, a legal scholar examines the career of Louis D. Brandeis (1856-1941), "the most important American critic of what he called ‘the curse of bigness' in government and business since Thomas Jefferson." National Constitution Center president and CEO Rosen (The Supreme Court: The Personalities and Rivalries that Defined America, 2007, etc.) states unambiguously that he is not attempting to offer a comprehensive biography, citing three high-quality, full-life biographies published after Brandeis left the Supreme Court in 1939. Rather, he presents "a condensed study of his thought and character." Throughout the book, Rosen considers Brandeis as a philosopher and prophet; many of his teachings transcended the opinions related to specific cases decided by the Supreme Court. As the first Jewish Supreme Court justice, Brandeis surely based some of his ideas on his religious upbringing. To the extent that the author focuses on Brandeis' Jewishness, the conversation veers toward Zionism, as Brandeis tirelessly advocated for a newly created Jewish homeland in Palestine that might protect followers of the faith from anti-Semitism. More than Jewish influences, though, Rosen considers Brandeis as a student of Thomas Jefferson's writings and speeches, even suggesting Brandeis be remembered as the Jewish Jefferson. The commonalities between Jefferson and Brandeis coalesce around skepticism about the value of economic monopolies and bankers as well as the oft-ignored value of small farmers and other entrepreneurs. Like Jefferson, Brandeis vigorously supported the system of a federal government, each of the states sharing authority wisely, with each state as an autonomous laboratory of democracy. Within each of those states, Brandeis, like Jefferson, hoped optimistically that every citizen would become well-informed through lifelong self-education. In an epilogue titled "What Would Brandeis Do?" Rosen traces the justice's influence today, specifically on three contemporary Supreme Court justices: Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan, and Stephen Breyer. A tightly written, tightly reasoned biography aimed at readers who are not legal scholars.

Kirkus Reviews