Learned Hand

Gerald Gunther (1927-2002) was a professor of constitutional law for almost 50 years, at Stanford University and Columbia University. Before writing Learned Hand: the Man and the Judge he authored Constitutional Law, during his lifetime the most widely used textbook in its field.

"A great constitutional scholar tells us about the life and work of a great judge. Gunther's insights into Hand's approach to law are deep, and the story of Hand's life is truly engaging. Anyone interested in the most important figures of American law should read this book." --Mark Tushnet William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law, Harvard Law School"Gerald Gunther was one of the twentieth century's greatest constitutional scholars, and he considered this book to be his most important work. Taking more than twenty years to write, it is a testament to its subject and its author. Gunther shows us why Hand, in decisions made over fifty years, was a great but flawed judge who perhaps deserves to be ranked second only to John Marshall in his enduring influence on American law. No book teaches us more aboutjudging and how to write about it than this magisterial biography." --Michael J. Gerhardt Samuel Ashe Distinguished Professor, UNC-Chapel Hill Law School"Fifteen years after it first appeared, Gerald Gunther's Learned Hand still sets the gold-standard for judicial biography. Comprehensive, historically precise, and psychologically astute, this monumental book rewards reading and re-reading. As a study of how ideas are born and expressed through real lives, it is a model of readable scholarship. Through it, Professor Gunther proved once and for all that historical narrative is indispensable for understanding ourConstitution and laws." -- Noah Feldman Bemis Professor of Law, Harvard Law School

• Foreword to the Second EditionPrefaceAcknowledgementsChapter 1: The Early YearsChapter 2: Learned Hand and Frances FinckeChapter 3: From Wall Street Lawyer to Federal District JudgeChapter 4: The Marriage and Its Tensions Chapter 5: The Peak of Political Enthusiasm: Herbert Croly, Theodore Roosevelt, and the Progressive YearsChapter 6: Promotion to the Second Circuit Chapter 7: The Second Circuit Court of Appeals in the 1920sand 1930s: Hand as First Among Equals Chapter 8: Achieving National Renown During the Nation'sComplacent Years, 1919-1928 Chapter 9: The Hoover Years and Hand's Missed Chance for Promotion to the Supreme Court Chapter 10: The New Deal Chapter 11: The Road to War and the Break with Lippmann Chapter 12: The Chief Judgeship and World War II Chapter 13: The Last Chance for a Supreme Court Appointment: The 1942 Vacancy Chapter 14: The Postwar Years, the Cold War, and McCarthyism Chapter 15: Active Retirement from "Regular Active Service" Notes