Earl Warren, attorney general of Alameda County, California, and later of the State of California, then Governor of California, and finally Chief Justice of the United States, changed the judicial system and expanded civil rights and liberties. In his lifetime, he made one gross error, permitting the internment of Japanese-Americans in concentration camps during WWII. In a public apology after the war, he stated that he was wrong. A Republican by party registration and appointed to the Supreme Court by a Republican president (Eisenhower), he was at heart a Democrat. Even today (or perhaps especially today) he is regarded by some conservative voices as the Chief Justice who sabotaged and changed the course of the Court towards a position of interpretation rather than hewing to a presumption of what the makers of the Constitution intended. Some of the most far-reaching cases he adjudicated were Brown v. Board of Education, Miranda v. Arizona, Gideon v. Wainwright, and a full briefcase of others. Compston details the political shenanigans that propelled him to the position of Chief Justice and provides fulsome information about Warren. But the work is somewhat dull, due, perhaps, to a lack of personal anecdotes and the seriousness of the subject. A knowledgeable reader might wonder what transformed Warren in his judicial philosophy and wonder about the current Supreme Court. But this is an adequate start. (chronology, further reading by and about Warren, index, picture credits, text credits) (Nonfiction. 12-15)
Pub Date: Jan. 18, 2002
ISBN: 0-19-513001-4
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Oxford Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2002
BOOK REVIEW
. Adamson is revered as one of the pioneers of the endangered animal movement; Neimark, though capturing much of Adamson’s milieu and the events of her life, paints her as a talented, but impulsive, moody woman. Growing up in Austria between world wars, Adamson trained as a pianist and as an artist. At 18, while attending a ball, she is carried off by a masked “apache” who declares, “You are mine.” The author burbles: “She felt the strength of his arms and the gritty warmth of his body.” That’s only one instance where the lack of source notes is keenly felt; readers will have to digest some astonishing information unaided. Although her romantic interlude lasts two years, her lover’s identity remains concealed (readers will have to suppose that she knew who he was, even if they don’t); Adamson, pregnant and abandoned, has an abortion, becomes a patient of Sigmund Freud, marries twice, and has two miscarriages before meeting her third husband, George Adamson, a gamekeeper in Kenya, who brings home three orphaned lion cubs. The many anecdotes comprising this biography are interesting, but without citations, leave readers unsettled; what is the possible source for Adamson’s dramatic death scene following a confrontation with a disgruntled ex-employee? “Blood seeped from her, but she felt no regrets. She had always chosen risk over safety. She would not, even now, be victim to fear.” (bibliography, index) (Biography. 12-14)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-15-201368-7
Page Count: 118
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1999
Katz (Black Women of the Old West, 1995, etc.) takes fascinating material—the tale of free and escaped African-Americans who helped colonize the Ohio and Mississippi River valleys from the late 18th-century to the middle of the 19th century—and gives it a textbook treatment. In this gathering of details and events in the lives of real people who settled the area, he presents a full history of the contributions of determined people who established schools and churches, fought slavery, and won basic civil rights. The many black-and-white period drawings and photographs help establish the people in the narrative and the facts surrounding their lives. The facts alone, one after the other, add up to a cogent picture of the growing wealth and importance of African-Americans in US history, but the dry presentation may doom it to use solely for reference or as a supplement to more inviting works. (index, not seen, maps, charts, notes, bibliography) (Nonfiction. 12-14)
Pub Date: May 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-689-81410-0
Page Count: 171
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
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