Cardozo: A Study in Reputation [Hardcover]

Richard A. Posner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 15, 1990

What makes a great judge? How are reputations forged? Why do some reputations endure, while others crumble? And how can we know whether a reputation is fairly deserved? In this ambitious book, Richard Posner confronts these questions in the case of Benjamin Cardozo. The result is both a revealing portrait of one of the most influential legal minds of our century and a model for a new kind of study—a balanced, objective, critical assessment of a judicial career.

"The present compact and unflaggingly interesting volume . . . is a full-bodied scholarly biography. . . .It is illuminating in itself, and will serve as a significant contribution."—Paul A. Freund, New York Times Book Review

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In this revised and expanded version of his University of Michigan Cooley Lectures, Posner, a U.S. Court of Appeals judge, offers a full-length critical judicial study of Benjamin Cardozo (1870-1938), appointed to the Supreme Court by Herbert Hoover. Posner compares and contrasts Cardozo with leading U.S. Supreme Court Justices and other 20th-century American judges. He shows that Cardozo's concern for common law adjudication was the base of the Justice's philosophy, and he carefully examines Cardozo's judicial analysis and Court opinions. A thoughtful addition to judicial biography collections.
- Steven Puro, St. Louis Univ.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 163 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press; First edition (October 15, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226675556
• ISBN-13: 978-0226675558
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,046,107 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Richard A. Posner is a judge of the U.S. Court Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, and a senior lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School. He is the author of numerous books, including Overcoming Law, a New York Times Book Review editors' choices for best book of 1995 and An Affair of State: The Investigation, Impeachment, and Trial of President Clinton, one of Times' choices for Best Book of the Year in 1999 and a Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist, 2000.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A fine book, April 18, 2000

By 

Michael Lewyn (Forest Hills, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Cardozo: A Study in Reputation (Paperback)

I just started my law school teaching career by teaching Torts, and I was a bit baffled at Cardozo's fame. Judge Posner explains the extent to which Cardozo stood head and shoulders above other jurists in notoriety, speculates why this is so, shows why Cardozo's reputation as a Supreme Court justice is dimmer than his reputation as a state judge, and dissects Cardozo's opinions. I thought that his discussion of Cardozo's literary style was especially masterful, as was his explanation of Cardozo's advantages in obtaining a great reputation.

The only part of the book I found lacking was Posner's discussion of individual cases, which was a bit less exciting than the rest of the book. Before reading the book I was not convinced that the infarmous Palsgraf case deserved its notoriety-- and I still don't get the Palsgraf mystique that seems to entrance so many other law professors and lawyers.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars As Danger Invites Rescue, Posner Stimulates Intellect, October 13, 2004

By 

Charles M. Wyzanski (CAMBRIDGE, MA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Cardozo: A Study in Reputation (Paperback)

If I recall his New Yorker profile accurately, Posner gets up at 4 a.m. every morning to maintain his extraordinary and excellent output as a public intellectual and judge of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. At 145 pages, this volume is perhaps Posner's shortest and--both because it is aimed at a general audience and resulted from a lecture series--one of his most readable. My sense, however, is that it would only appeal to those already steeped in the profession. Not even a law student would find instructive comparisons with Stone, Hand, Friendly, Prosser, or Schaeffer. For those in the profession, however, I recommend this book most highly. It is less valuable for its purported study in reputation than for its profound, if succinct, understanding of Cardozo the man and the insight it provides into the style and logic of some of his best known decisions, Palsgraf and MacPherson chief among them. Posner's original attempt at a quantitative understanding of reputation relies on Cardozo's relative frequency of citation in some Westlaw data bases over the years. It is pseudo-scientific, redolent of Posner's application of economics to an understanding of the law and, while interesting, not very meaningful. The book as a whole, however, is most gratifying.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Compound Authority; a many-layered onion, June 4, 2001

By 

Random Joys "nicholasgeo" (Carmel, IN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cardozo: A Study in Reputation (Paperback)

This may be the classic book by Posner. Shorter than most his books--and less encyclopaedic--but also less maiandering. Cardozo: A Study in Reputation stays on track, while revealing a complex sensibility of jurisprudence by Posner and an astounding intuition by Cardozo. In this book we see two great legal minds at work: Cardozo's providing the interpretations that further social welfare and Posner's explaining why these interpretations are so desirable.

I 'd rate this book the one MUST READ book if you are thinking about law school. This is what law school is about: Struggling with how to promote social welfare by interpretation and rulemaking.