Mr. Ro dell’s Roman Holiday

Nine Men: A Political History of the Supreme Court from 1790 to 1955, by Fred Rodell. 338 pp. New York: Random House. $5.00

This book tells you what the United States Supreme Court did and what it dodged doing on issues of great significance, and fixes responsibility for these acts and refusals to act on particular judges. I came away from it convinced that I know a great deal about the likes and dislikes of Mr. Rodell, but unwilling to trust his statements about the character and quality of particular judges and his suggestions and assertions about the social consequences of their behavior. I do not recall ever before having read a book purporting to be of scholarly character in which the preferences of the writer were so frequently and boldly injected into description of what took place.

CH

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Charles S. Hyneman

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Supreme Court

Nine Men: A Political History of the Supreme Court from 1790 to 1955, by Fred Rodell. 338 pp. New York: Random House. $5.00

This book tells you what the United States Supreme Court did and what it dodged doing on issues of great significance, and fixes responsibility for these acts and refusals to act on particular judges. I came away from it convinced that I know a great deal about the likes and dislikes of Mr. Rodell, but unwilling to trust his statements about the character and quality of particular judges and his suggestions and assertions about the social consequences of their behavior. I do not recall ever before having read a book purporting to be of scholarly character in which the preferences of the writer were so frequently and boldly injected into description of what took place.