 | Citizen Rauh: An American Liberal''s Life in Law and Politics Subjects: Rauh Joseph L. 1911–; Lawyers -- United States -- Biography; Labor lawyers -- United States -- Biography; Civil rights workers -- United States -- Biography; Liberals -- United States -- Biography; As presented by Parrish, Joseph L. Rauh, Jr. is not only the Zelig of American liberalism, but one of the most important people you've never heard of. The Harvard-trained lawyer fought for New Deal legislation, against McCarthyism, for Civil Rights, and against the confirmations of justices William H. Rehnquist, Clarence Thomas, Antonin Scalia, and others. A founder of Americans for Democratic Action, he helped write legislation and make and unmake Democratic Party leaders; naturally, he was red-baited and wire-tapped by Edgar J. Hoover's FBI. Parrish conducted years of interviews with Rauh, his family, and associates; seeing Rauh's struggle to balance principles and pragmatism in Washington, D.C. is interesting, and while it's impossible not to be awed by the breadth of his interests and career, readers may wonder about the intended audience. Those familiar with Rauh will know much of the information presented and those who aren't may find their interest waning. That said, Rauh deserves to be better known, and anyone who values the New Deal, the Civil Rights movement, or the Great Society will close this book wondering why Rauh isn't, at the very least, on a stamp. Photos. (Aug.) Copyright 2010 Reed Business Information. Michael E. Parrish is Distinguished Professor of History at the University of California, San Diego, where he has taught for forty years. A specialist in the legal and constitutional history of the United States, he has also taught at Nanjing University in the People's Republic of China, the University of Edinburgh, the University of Glasgow, and the University of Helsinki, where he was the Fulbright Bicentennial Professor of American Studies. Parrish is the author of five other books: Securities Regulation and the New Deal; Felix Frankfurter and His Times; Anxious Decades: America in Prosperity and Depression; The Hughes Court: Justices, Rulings, and Legacy; and The Supreme Court and Capital Punishment: Judging Death . His articles have appeared in the American Historical Review, the Historian, Diplomatic History, the Journal of the Supreme Court Historical Society, and the Yale Law Journal. |
