Book Description
This digital document, covering the life and work of Benjamin N(athan) Cardozo, is an entry from Contemporary Authors, a reference volume published by Thompson Gale. The length of the entry is 2621 words. The page length listed above is based on a typical 300-word page. Although the exact content of each entry from this volume can vary, typical entries include the following information:

• Place and date of birth and death (if deceased)
• Family members
• Education
• Professional associations and honors
• Employment
• Writings, including books and periodicals
• A description of the author's work
• References to further readings about the author

Book Description

Customer Reviews (5)

As Danger Invites Rescue, Posner Stimulates Intellect
If I recall his New Yorker profile accurately, Posner gets up at 4 a.m. every morning to maintain his extraordinary and excellent output as a public intellectual and judge of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. At 145 pages, this volume is perhaps Posner's shortest and--both because it is aimed at a general audience and resulted from a lecture series--one of his most readable.My sense, however, is that it would only appeal to those already steeped in the profession.Not even a law student would find instructive comparisons with Stone, Hand, Friendly, Prosser, or Schaeffer.For those in the profession, however, I recommend this book most highly.It is less valuable for its purported study in reputation than for its profound, if succinct, understanding of Cardozo the man and the insight it provides into the style and logic of some of his best known decisions, Palsgraf and MacPherson chief among them.Posner's original attempt at a quantitative understanding of reputation relies on Cardozo's relative frequency of citation in some Westlaw data bases over the years.It is pseudo-scientific, redolent of Posner's application of economics to an understanding of the law and, while interesting, not very meaningful.The book as a whole, however, is most gratifying.

Deconstructing Justice Palsgraf
Judge Posner examines the reasons for Cardozo's reputation and, more important, analyzes the rhetorical methods the judge used in creating some of the most renowned and cited decisions in American law.How and why he crafted the statement of the facts a certain way for one decision, a different way for another; how Cardozo used a lawyer's persuasive skills in reaching results he believed were warranted.Posner also examines the inconsistencies in Cardozo's thinking and opinion-writing.The book presents a portrait of a brilliant, prudent jurist and illuminates his professional shortcomings as well.May have little appeal for the non-lawyer, but for anyone interested in legal writing, the judicial process, and opinion-making, this is a terrific book.

Compound Authority; a many-layered onion
This may be the classic book by Posner. Shorter than most his books--and less encyclopaedic--but also less maiandering. Cardozo: A Study in Reputation stays on track, while revealing a complex sensibility of jurisprudence by Posner and an astounding intuition by Cardozo. In this book we see two great legal minds at work: Cardozo's providing the interpretations that further social welfare and Posner's explaining why these interpretations are so desirable.

I 'd rate this book the one MUST READ book if you are thinking about law school. This is what law school is about: Struggling with how to promote social welfare by interpretation and rulemaking.

American Judges
Judge Posner builds and presents a strong case in defense of JusticeCardozo's reputation as a leading American jurist. Apparently, sometimeduring the 1950s a revisionary movement emerged in American legal thoughtthat eventually injured Benjamin N. Cardozo. His Hemmingwayesque opinionswere criticized as pedestrian, and the logic behind his reasoning wasattacked as paternalistic. Judge Posner's thesis (a top-notch dissertation)deflects the subjective defamation and focuses upon objective standards ofjudicial measurement. Employing the resources of an electronic legaldatabase, he proves that the Cardozo opinions, particularly those writtenas a judge in NY's Ct. of Appeals, have been consistently cited withregularity. This original test demonstrates that Cardozo's influence on thecommon law is unrivaled by any jurist other than O W Holmes.

Attemptingto create a new genre of social science, Judge Posner smoothly integratesthe drives that formed Cardozo as a man with the strictures of the law thatdefine a judge. Analysis of the opinions, along with the briefs of thearguments, show that he was a good judge because he was able to reachcorrect results even when the specific facts of cases seemed to predict alegal anamoly. That quality produced case law that remains hard toreconcile, and the result has been attacks on the decisions asinconsistent. Judge Posner recognizes those weaknesses, but rather thancontorting his logic in reconciling them explains that a man's reputationis typically based on either his high points or his low ones. In Cardozo'scase, his death after only six years on the US Supreme Court limited thehigh points to controversial cases, such as MacPherson and Hynes. JudgePosner speculates that had Cardozo, like Holmes, had a full career as aSupreme Court justice the subjective standard for measurement of hisreputation would have shifted away from the decisions as a statejudge.

Although those state court opinions continue to dominate Tortstextbooks, Cardozo's critics have injured his reputation by suggesting thathe was merely a flamboyant local judge. Judge Posner shows that their slurshave not reached the ears of leading jurists. However, the ordinary personis apt to adopt those reputationary revisions without actually readingCardozo's opinions and relating them to the specific cases and thedevelopment of American common law. Thus, Judge Posner creates a bridge,somewhat like Justice Cardozo, between arcane legal studies and the conductof the people that law governs.

A fine book
I just started my law school teaching career by teaching Torts, and I was a bit baffled at Cardozo's fame.Judge Posner explains the extent to which Cardozo stood head and shoulders above other jurists in notoriety,speculates why this is so, shows why Cardozo's reputation as a SupremeCourt justice is dimmer than his reputation as a state judge, and dissectsCardozo's opinions.I thought that his discussion of Cardozo's literarystyle was especially masterful, as was his explanation of Cardozo'sadvantages in obtaining a great reputation.

The only part of the book Ifound lacking was Posner's discussion of individual cases, which was a bitless exciting than the rest of the book.Before reading the book I was notconvinced that the infarmous Palsgraf case deserved its notoriety-- and Istill don't get the Palsgraf mystique that seems to entrance so many otherlaw professors and lawyers. ... Read more

Book Description

"The sordid controversies of litigants," Benjamin Cardozo once said, are "the stuff from which great and shining truths will ultimately be shaped." As one of America's most influential judges, first on New York State's Court of Appeals and then on the United States Supreme Court, Cardozo (1870-1938) oversaw this transformation daily. How he arrived at his rulings, with their far-reaching consequences, becomes clear in this book, the first to explore the connections between Benjamin Cardozo's life and his jurisprudence.

An intensely private man whose friends destroyed much of his correspondence, Cardozo has long eluded scrutiny. But through extraordinary effort Richard Polenberg has uncovered letters, briefs, transcripts, and biographical details to give us a complex living picture of this man whose judicial opinions continue to affect us. Polenberg describes the shaping experiences of Cardozo's youth, among them the death of his mother when he was nine years old; religious training in the Spanish-Portuguese Synagogue; two years of private tutoring by Horatio Alger, Jr.; and his reaction to the scandal that prompted his father to resign from the New York Supreme Court. Then, in light of certain cases that were brought before the Court of Appeals, we see how Cardozo's rulings reflected a system of beliefs rooted in these early experiences; how, despite his famous detachment, Cardozo read evidence and precedents selectively and based his decisions regarding issues from rape and divorce to the insanity plea on his own views about morality, scholarship, and sexuality. Here too is the truth behind Cardozo's renowned liberalism, explored through his rulings on New Deal measures such as the Social Security Act and his more conservative decisions in cases involving conscientious objectors and the rights of criminal defendants.

The Benjamin Cardozo who emerges from these pages, a complicated and intriguing figure, points to a new understanding of the shaping of American law.

Amazon.com
Andrew L. Kaufman has, after 40 years of work, written what will be the definitive biography of Justice Benjamin Cardozo. Cardozo was one of the premier judges of the first half of this century, serving on the New York Court of Appeals as Chief Judge, the most influential state court in the country, and then on the Supreme Court. On the New York Court of Appeals, Cardozo rewrote tort law with his stamp; his characterizations of negligence, proximate cause, and assumption of the risk still dominate law throughout the land 60 to 80 years after his original decisions.

Kaufman recounts all of this, effectively combining legal analysis with biography. Cardozo's father was a judge tarnished with scandal, and it has long been theorized that Cardozo's life was an attempt to retrieve that lost honor. He would, for example, turn down even the simplest gifts that other judges routinely accepted. Kaufman arguably overplays the honor theme when it comes to his legal analysis, most notably in his analysis of Meinhard v. Salmon, in which the judge declared that, in matters of fiduciary obligations, "[a] trustee is held to something stricter than the morals of the marketplace." Kaufman, perhaps stretching Cardozo's opinion too far to reach the desired conclusion, views this decision as "a culmination of Cardozo's efforts to implant a sense of honorable conduct into law."

The only potential downside to the book, other than the occasional desire to see Kaufman address more frequently the thoughts and analysis of other biographers and commentators on Cardozo's life and work, is that Cardozo's virtue risks becoming the biography's failing: his life was his work. He was celibately monkish in his private life, and other than the politicking behind each of his successive appointments to higher courts, Cardozo's political life was for the most part equally quiet. Fortunately, Cardozo's legal output is so varied and important that the biography's necessary focus on his judicial career is not wasted effort for the author or the reader. --Ted Frank Book Description

Benjamin Nathan Cardozo, unarguably one of the most outstanding judges of the twentieth century, is a man whose name remains prominent and whose contributions to the law remain relevant. This first complete biography of the longtime member and chief judge of the New York Court of Appeals and Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States during the turbulent years of the New Deal is a monumental achievement by a distinguished interpreter of constitutional law.

Cardozo was a progressive judge who understood and defended the proposition that judge-made law must be adapted to modern conditions. He also preached and practiced the doctrine that respect for precedent, history, and all branches of government limited what a judge could and should do. Thus, he did not modernize law at every opportunity.

In this book, Kaufman interweaves the personal and professional lives of this remarkable man to yield a multidimensional whole. Cardozo's family ties to the Jewish community were a particularly significant factor in shaping his life, as was his father's scandalous career--and ultimate disgrace--as a lawyer and judge. Kaufman concentrates, however, on Cardozo's own distinguished career, including twenty-three years in private practice as a tough-minded and skillful lawyer and his classic lectures and writings on the judicial process. From this biography emerges an estimable figure holding to concepts of duty and responsibility, but a person not without frailties and prejudice.

Customer Reviews (4)

The Definitive Biography
Professor Kaufman worked on this impressive biography of Benjamin Nathan Cardozo for over 35 years.There were times when one began to wonder if it would ever appear.Well, it did and it was worth the wait. This is a long book, running some 700 pages including notes.At times, it seems almost too detailed--but it is a wonderful resource for anyone interested in Cardozo, the development of American law, and the Supreme Court.Kaufman strikes a nice balance between BNC's private and public lives, his 18 year service on the New York Court of Appeals and his 5 or so terms on the Supreme Court, the biographical details one expects and the legal doctrines and opinions that he authored. Along the way, the author covers BNC's significant books; his involvement with the ALI; his work in developing key contract and tort concepts on the Court of Appeals; his long period as Chief Judge there; and his methods of working and drafting opinions while on the New York court.

It is generally conceded that Cardozo's greatest contributions to the development of American law occurred on the CA and not during his service on the Supreme Court--he was the master common law judge rather than constitutional expert. So Kaufman devotes around 300 pages to Cardozo's service on that court.By contrast, around 100 pages are devoted to the Supreme Court and BNC's period in Washington. In fact, BNC does not get appointed until page 455. Cardozo found the Supremes a much less collegial body than the NY Court, in part because the justices were still doing the bulk of their work at home.Cardozo's views of state regulatory power and taxation, national regulatory power, court packing, and some civil liberties cases (such as Palko) are well addressed.Cardozo must have found it difficult to deal with colleagues such as Justice McReynolds and the other "four horsemen," but nonetheless he opposed FDR's court packing scheme.

While Richard Polenberg's "World of Benjamin Cardozo" (also published by Harvard University Press) is itself a fine contribution, this is the most exhaustive study of Cardozo that we are likely ever to see.It is a masterful work, but one that requires persistence to get through.It is the book that BNC deserves.

Extraordinary insights into an American judicial hero
Andrew Kaufman has written an engrossing account of the life of BenjaminCardozo, a judicial hero of the first third of the century.This bookshould prove especially useful for first-year law students, who read manyof Cardozo's most important decisions in their contracts and torts classes. But even non-lawyers with an interest in the legal system will find ithighly readable and informative.

An honest and insightful biography of a pivotal figure
Professor Kaufman presents his subject, first, as a man, establishing the personal background that shaped Cardozo's work as a judge.Kaufman then offers an insightful examination of the judicial work of Judge and Justice Cardozo, analyzing the development and maturation of Cardozo's thinking regarding the many legal principles which have become mainstays of American jurisprudence.The biography is well suited to lawyer and non-lawyer, and provides an extraordinary social history of the shaping of the American common law that governs our lives and liability today. This biography is a must-read primer for all soon-to-be law students, who will find in it an invaluable guide to the principles they are preparing to study.Professor Kaufman's honest analysis of the talents and faults of his subject is much to be commended.

The only comprehensive biography of Justice Cardozo
This is a book for laypeople and lawyers, rare in judicial biography. It is written in a clear and lucid prose, eschewing much of the current academic jargon. The author's years of work include many interviews with people now dead (and thus unavailable!), providing invaluable insights and perspectives into Cardozo's life and judicial influence. This work will be interesting to social historians, as well, for its treatment of the Nathan and Cardozo families' experiences in an evolving America. ... Read more