Although he spent most of his life as a judge, White notes, Supreme Court justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (1841–1935) was regarded "by many citizens as a romantic figure, a kind of hero." In this new entry in the Lives and Legacies series, University of Virginia law professor White (Alger Hiss's Looking Glass Wars
) explains the law but fails to convey the heroism. After service in the Civil War, Holmes apprenticed himself to a Boston law firm, and was admitted to the bar in 1867. Holmes hoped that as a judge he would be able to wield influence in politics and society—and in that he succeeded. White summarizes many of Holmes's important contributions, such as his post-WWI majority opinion in Schenck
v. United States
, in which he wrote that the government can restrain speech that presents "a clear and present danger." White's explanations of the judiciary have the overly simplistic feel of a civics textbook, as in lengthy descriptions of the differences between federal district judgeships and state trial judges and statements like "Judges are responsible for deciding what the laws mean in particular legal dispute." This basic account of a great life might best be directed at YA readers. 10 b&w illus. (Mar.)
