After several years as a small-town lawyer in Alpena, Frank J. Kelley was unexpectedly appointed Michigan’s attorney general at the end of 1961. He never suspected that he would continue to serve until 1999, a national record. During that time, he worked with everyone from John and Bobby Kennedy to Bill Clinton and jump-started the careers of dozens …
Judge Biographies
Florynce “Flo” Kennedy: The Life of a Black Feminist Radical (Gender and American Culture)
Often photographed in a cowboy hat with her middle finger held defiantly in the air, Florynce “Flo” Kennedy (1916–2000) left a vibrant legacy as a leader of the Black Power and feminist movements. In the first biography of Kennedy, Sherie M. Randolph traces the life and political influence of this strikingly bold and controversial radical activist. Rather than …
In 1834 Harvard dropout Richard Henry Dana Jr. sailed to California as a common seaman. His account of the voyage, Two Years Before the Mast, quickly became an American classic. But literary acclaim could not erase the young lawyer’s memory of the brutal floggings he had witnessed aboard ship or undermine the vow he had made to combat …
A hero in America’s war against British tyranny, John Marshall with his heroics as Chief Justice turned the Supreme Court into a bulwark against presidential and congressional tyranny and saved American democracy.In this startling biography, award-winning author Harlow Giles Unger reveals how Virginia-born John Marshall emerged from the Revolutionary War’s bloodiest battlefields to become one of the nation’s …
Teaching the Pig to Dance: A Memoir of Growing Up and Second Chances
Fred Thompson has enjoyed a remarkable career in Hollywood and politics, but when he sat down to write a memoir about how he got to be the person he is, he discovered that his best stories all seemed to come out of the years he spent growing up in and around his hometown of Lawrenceburg, Tennessee. It was …
Black Titan: A.G. Gaston and the Making of a Black American Millionaire
The grandson of slaves, born into poverty in 1892 in the Deep South, A. G. Gaston died more than a century later with a fortune worth well over $130 million and a business empire spanning communications, real estate, and insurance. Gaston was, by any measure, a heroic figure whose wealth and influence bore comparison to J. P. Morgan …
Soulshaping is the inspiring memoir of an archetypal “male warrior”–a trial lawyer–who struggled to find his heart and a more authentic, soulful path. Rivetingly personal and profoundly universal, this book is for anyone who has heard a whisper of something truer calling out to them amid the distractions of modern life. Jeff Brown’s dramatic and often funny story …
The Barefoot Lawyer: A Blind Man’s Fight for Justice and Freedom in China
An electrifying memoir by the blind Chinese activist who inspired millions with the story of his fight for justice and his belief in the cause of freedomIt was like a scene out of a thriller: one morning in April 2012, China’s most famous political activist―a blind, self-taught lawyer―climbed over the wall of his heavily guarded home and escaped. …
This expanded edition includes a new introduction and epilogue by Colson, recounting the writing of his bestselling book and detailing how his ministry has brought hope and encouragement to so …
Provocative, inspiring, and unflinchingly honest, My Grandfather’s Son is the story of one of America’s most remarkable and controversial leaders, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, told in his own words. Thomas speaks out, revealing the pieces of his life he holds dear, detailing the suffering and injustices he has overcome, including the acrimonious and polarizing Senate hearing involving …