United States, Lawyers & Judges, Courts, Legal History, American Biography, Biographies, John Marshall, Supreme Court 

Southern biography series 

"John Marshall (1755-1835) was arguably the most important judicial figure in American history. As the fourth chief justice of the United States Supreme Court, serving during the formative years of the Republic from 1801 to 1835, he helped move the Court from the fringes of power to the epicenter of constitutional government. His great opinions in cases like Marbury v. Madison and McCulloch v. Maryland, cited by the Court thousands of times over the years, are still part of the working discourse of constitutional law in America. Drawing on a new and definitive edition of Marshall's papers, R. Kent Newmyer combines engaging narrative with new historiographical insights in a fresh interpretation of John Marshall's life in the law. Newmyer unfolds Marshall's early Virginia years - his Americanization in Fauquier County before the Revolution, his decision to fight for independence as "a principled soldier," and his emergence as a constitutional nationalist in the 1780s. Marshall's experience as a Federalist politician and a leading Virginia lawyer during the turbulent partisan decade of the 1790s, Newmyer argues, defined his ideas about judicial review and the role of the Supreme Court as a curb on party-based, states' rights radicalism."--Jacket. 

Content:

Young man of the revolution -- Judicial statesman in the making : law and politics in the 1790s -- Marshall, Jefferson, and the rise of the Supreme Court -- Republican judge as Lockean liberal -- Constitutional law for a new nation -- Embattled chief -- Conservative nationalist in the age of Jackson. 

Includes bibliographical references and index.