Shelf 4 of 7 · One Decision, Book-Length
Landmark Cases
The biography-of-a-case genre — a single decision told at book length, from Dred Scott to Roe.
Kluger, Richard. Simple Justice: The History of Brown v. Board of Education and Black America’s Struggle for Equality. 1976.
Lewis, Anthony. Gideon’s Trumpet. 1964.
Lewis, Anthony. Make No Law: The Sullivan Case and the First Amendment.
Friendly, Fred W. Minnesota Rag: The Dramatic Story of the Landmark Supreme Court Case That Gave New Meaning to Freedom of the Press. 1981.
Polenberg, Richard. Fighting Faiths: The Abrams Case, the Supreme Court, and Free Speech.
Healy, Thomas. The Great Dissent: How Oliver Wendell Holmes Changed His Mind. 2013.
Garrow, David J. Liberty and Sexuality: The Right to Privacy and the Making of Roe v. Wade.
King, Gilbert. Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America. 2012.
Lane, Charles. The Day Freedom Died: The Colfax Massacre, the Supreme Court, and the Betrayal of Reconstruction. 2008.
Fehrenbacher, Don E. The Dred Scott Case: Its Significance in American Law and Politics. 1978.
Finkelman, Paul. Supreme Injustice: Slavery in the Nation’s Highest Court. 2018.
Stewart, David O. Impeached: The Trial of President Andrew Johnson and the Fight for Lincoln’s Legacy. 2009.
Holt, Michael F. By One Vote: The Disputed Presidential Election of 1876. 2008.
Jones, Howard. Mutiny on the Amistad: The Saga of a Slave Revolt and Its Impact on American Abolition, Law, and Diplomacy. 1987.
Lofgren, Charles A. The Plessy Case: A Legal-Historical Interpretation. 1987.
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