Learned Hand

"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 about judging 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 our Constitution and laws." -- Noah Feldman Bemis Professor of Law, Harvard Law School