Attorney for the Damned: Clarence Darrow in the Courtroom [Paperback]

Clarence Darrow (Author), Arthur Weinberg (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0226136493 | ISBN-13: 978-0226136493 | Publication Date: February 15, 1989

"Clarence Darrow [was] perhaps the most effective courtroom opponent of cant, bigotry, and special privilege that our country has produced. All of Darrow's most celebrated pleas are here--in defense of Leopold and Loeb (1924), of Lieutenant Massie (1932), of Big Bill Haywood (1907), of Thomas Scopes (1925), and of himself for attempted bribery."--The New Yorker

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Arthur Weinberg was the Lloyd Lewis Fellow in American History at the Newberry Library in Chicago at the time of his death in 1989. He was the coauthor, with Lila Weinberg, of The Muckrackers, Verdicts Out of Court, and Clarence Darrow: A Sentimental Rebel, among other books.

Product Details

• Paperback: 576 pages
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press (February 15, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226136493
• ISBN-13: 978-0226136493
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #408,506 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If this guy isnt your hero he should be., March 29, 2002

By 

Mr. Arnold W. Shunneson "danny_rand" (Denver, CO USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Attorney for the Damned: Clarence Darrow in the Courtroom (Paperback)

Book is stunning. Makes you realize that language used to be more valued. The guy was amazing simply amazing.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Valuable, May 12, 2009

By 

G. Filipovic "Steelstairs" - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Attorney for the Damned: Clarence Darrow in the Courtroom (Paperback)

Has transcripts of many of his closing arguments. He was a great philosopher, not only a lawyer. A worthy read. I lend it to others, and never get it back, so I have to constantly buy new copies of the book.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Lawyer for All Seasons, December 22, 2008

By 

B. Clarke - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Attorney for the Damned: Clarence Darrow in the Courtroom (Paperback)

Anyone considering a career as a trial lawyer should read this book. So should anyone interested in American history: Darrow the lawyer was smack in the middle of every major issue, cause, and debate in the first third of the twentieth century. The sign on his office door read "We Defend Everyone," and he lived up to that promise. Darrow defended Leopold and Loeb, argued against capital punishment, argued for the right to teach evolution in schools, represented union members, communist party members, and defendants of all stripes in all sorts of murder cases -- including several high profile capital cases in which the accused were members of minority groups. In short, he defended all those who were "damned" by the government and the public in the early twentieth century. As the closing arguments in this book demonstrate, Darrow was a great and powerful orator, a persuasive debater, the common man as brilliant philosopher, a speaker who could wax eloquent with the best of them -- and ultimately a hard-working, dedicated trial lawyer who won his cases by speaking plainly and simply to petit jurors, person to person. Many of his summations left the jurors, and everyone else in the courtroom, in tears. If you don't want your son or daughter to go to law school, don't let him or her read this book.