CHARLES EVANS HUGHES

by Merlo J. Pusey ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 30, 1951

A definitive two volume biography of one of the outstanding Americans of this generation, a man who became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, who served as Governor of the State of New York, and had a distinguished career in public service. Son of a clergyman whose ardent advocacy of causes kept him moving on from parish to parish, Charles Evans Hughes held consistently from boyhood on to his goal of the law. He went to school or not, as circumstances dictated, but eventually got to Colgate (then called Madison), shifted to Brown, and took his law schooling at Columbia. His rise was rapid; his personal life a richly rounded one, with an aboundingly happy marriage, professional success, travel, and the chance to choose his own field of endeavour, now in public life, now in teaching, and now in public service. Certain high spots emerge,-his battle with Hearst, his share in the reforms of state government, of insurance; he struck at the evils of bossism, of special privilege. During his years as Secretary of State he worked in vain for the League of Nations, secured partial ratification of the peace treaty, established the claims machinery, limited the Japanese mandates, and called the Washington Conference on disarmament. Despite the ultimate failure of some of his aims, he did bring the U.S. back into a place in world leadership. His record in public and private life shows a tolerant recognition of State powers, a grasp of the responsibility of the good citizen, and he emerges as a warmer more human figure than legend leads one to expect. His biographer knows the period, the issues, and places his distinguished subject in his era. A book that lawyers will find particularly interesting for the analysis of many of the cases on which Justice Hughes sat.

Pub Date: Oct. 30, 1951

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Macmillan

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1951

Categories: NONFICTION