Customer Reviews

Learned Hand: The Man and the Judge

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4 star:		(2)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Learned Hand was in many ways a great man. A dedicated judge, the gently forgiving husband of a straying wife, a kind and thoughtful person, brilliantly intelligent and clear-thinking - and yet, in the end, almost unknowable. Gunther's biography shines a light on every aspect of the judge's work and personality, including the mystery at his inner core. Hand really wasn't like other people, and Gunther, who knew him personally, captures that.

Gunther's prose is remarkably clear and direct. Another reviewer's remarks about his political bias are just mystifying to me. I don't think Hand's jurisprudence can be classified as either liberal or conservative, and I didn't come away with any sense of Gunther's politics. Frankfurter, the New Dealer, is not depicted as a villain, but rather as one of Hand's closest friends, and an extremely interesting person in his own right.

Judicial biographies are inherently difficult to write, because the subjects' lives tend to be externally uneventful. (Hand virtually never left his native New York state.) Also, old cases are dull unless you really get into them, but to do so requires long digressions from the biographical narrative. This is the only judicial biography I've read that overcomes both problems. I recommend it wholeheartedly.

This long book, with 680 pp of text, which deterred me at the outset, but then its length became welcome.

I read other Amazon reviewers with interest, and agree with some that(a)this is a valuable book, and with another that(b)the author at times demonstrates a political slant or bias. On the latter issue, however, I am less concerned than the critic. Many of the topics allow no easy answers and probably defie totally impartial reporting. No problem; I am capable of detecting bias, and willing to hear many sides of an issue.

I appreciated the fascinating account of Hand's life (mostly his career, since the family soon disappears from the narrative). I also greatly appreciated looking behind the scences as lawyers, the courts, and Hand and his friends confronted major events in 20th century US history.

This book deepened and refreshed my understandings. Is it the "true" or definitive story of Learned Hand and his times? Perhaps, but that is not my basic concern. Rather, the book helped me test and possibly deepen my own thinking. Ideological slant notwithstanding the author has given me valuable information. Doing my part - as an active, intelligent reader - I was able to exercise my brain: reconsidering past understandings, reassess my own prejudices, etc. In sum, the book is entertaining and a welcome tool that helped me stay mentally alive and, perhaps, even grow a bit wiser.

Finally, though not a lawyer I am interested in the law and its links to economic, social, and political processes. Thus I am perhaps more patient with fine legal distinctions and reasoning than would be the average reader. Some folks will not want to work their way through this book.

Yes, it is very long, but it is fascinating in its study not only of a fascinating man but also of fascinating times. Gunther presents Judge Hand as a complex man who can't be given any one conventional label. He was both liberal and conservative, gentle and explosive, kind and cold, confident and frightened. Judge Hand had many things to say that have influenced who we were then as a culture. His decisions and philosophy continue to help form the foundation of our life in this century. The tenets of free speech that we take for granted today were not common in his day, until he set them out. His warnings about the risk of personal conformance obliterating individuality may have been issued in 1927, but they echo down the decades and are no less valid now. His caustic wit (we'll have to decide this case as if it had been tried by actual lawyers) is still very, very funny. Judge Hand was clearly one of the most intelligent and thoughtful Americans who ever lived, and Gunther does him justice by refusing to shortchange his complexities for the sake of turning his full and fascinating life into a 15-second soundbite. If the book is a long read, read it in many sittings - it stretches out the enrichment.

An absorbing biography. This portrait of Learned Hand is as rich in detail and as dynamic in thought and scope as was the Judge himself. This book is written in style which is evocative and accessible. Gunther's review of the various legal doctrines is understandable without pandering. Woven throughout the book is a look at a very exposed human being. Here is a man with all the phobias and moroses of all men, yet a mind second to none. Tired of flat, one dimensional looks at individuals you wouldn't care about had you met them personally? Read this book. It will challenge and ultimately inspire you that there are books worth reading and people worth emulating.

As a lawyer, I knew of Learned Hand from his opinions.

Thanks to Professor Gunther, I know about the real life human being who wrote them. Hand was a success at many things, but had more than his share of personal issues. The author does a fine job of blending Hand's personal life with his professional life.

The highest praise that I can offer is that Professor Gunther doesn't write at all like a lawyer. His prose is witty, captivating and entertaining. Somehow, Professor Gunther managed to overcome his legal training long enough to write sparkling prose.

Good job!GOOD WILL WIN IN THE END

This biography is perhaps the best thing that has happened in law in the last thirty years. There is finally an account of a Jurist whose brilliant legal analyses and commitment to judicial process is made available for the legally interested. In a society which has come to view the legal profession as comprised of those who are still evolving out of the primordial sludge, Justice Hand was a man of imeccable values whose acute intellectual approach to law is viewed, in retrospect by this writer, as heroic. Professor Gunther's delivery is no less a work of poetry than Judge Hand's judicial opinions.

This is an outstanding biography written by one who is a true legal scholar in his own right. Gunther's understanding and insight into the legal issues surrounding the life of Learned Hand made reading this book a fine experience.

notwithstanding Justice Powell's glowing introduction, reading this book is like wading through cold oatmeal. anyone who can endure this avalanche of turgid prose to mine those incredibly few nuggets of interesting information about this great judge is a dedicated person indeed. save your money.