William Howard Taft [Paperback]

Alpheus Thomas Mason (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 4, 1983 | ISBN-10: 0819130915 | ISBN-13: 978-0819130914

Originally published by Simon & Schuster in 1964, this is the ironic story of how William Howard Taft, the only man ever to be both President and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, reformed judicial processes in this country so thoroughly that he helped to undermine the reactionary power of wealth and privilege in which he believed.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Alpheus Thomas Mason is McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, Emeritus, at Princeton University and a member of the UPA Advisory Board.

Product Details

• Paperback: 354 pages
• Publisher: University Press Of America (May 4, 1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0819130915
• ISBN-13: 978-0819130914
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,568,478 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good Analysis of Taft's Chief Justiceship, September 16, 2006

By 

Steve Fast (Hillsboro, KS, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: William Howard Taft, Chief Justice

This book is written by a legal scholar who has written on a number of other 20th century American jurists. It only covers Taft's life from the perspective of his chief justiceship. As a result, his life story before 1921 is very sketchy--Mason only relates information about his life-long campaign to be appointed to the Supreme Court and surveys his legal philosophy before 1921. Almost nothing of his service in the Philippines, the War Department, or as President is discussed.

However, Taft's maneuvering before and during his presidency is discussed in detail. There's a lot of interesting disucssion of Taft's impact on federal court procedure, improving the status of the Supreme Court, his impact on constitutional jurisprudence, and his olympian efforts to build a majority for every opinion. Mason goes beyond the usual conservative/liberal or strict/loose constructionist approaches to explain what values motivated Taft's decisions and judicial philosophy.

The writing is a bit dry in places, and I wonder if the scholarship is up to date, the book having been published over 40 years ago. All in all, it's a reasonably good biography of the second half of Taft's life, but with very little on his presidency.