{"product_id":"the-great-dissenter-the-story-of-john-marshall-harlan-americas-judicial-hero-9781501188213","title":"The Great Dissenter: The Story of John Marshall Harlan, America's Judicial Hero","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe \"superb\" (\u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e) biography of an American who stood against all the forces of Gilded Age America to fight for civil rights and economic freedom: Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThey say that history is written by the victors. But not in the case of the most famous dissenter on the Supreme Court. Almost a century after his death, John Marshall Harlan's words helped end segregation and gave us our civil rights and our modern economic freedom. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBut his legacy would not have been possible without the courage of Robert Harlan, a slave who John's father raised like a son in the same household. After the Civil War, Robert emerges as a political leader. With Black people holding power in the Republican Party, it is Robert who helps John land his appointment to the Supreme Court. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAt first, John is awed by his fellow justices, but the country is changing. Northern whites are prepared to take away black rights to appease the South. Giant trusts are monopolizing entire industries. Against this onslaught, the Supreme Court seemed all too willing to strip away civil rights and invalidate labor protections. So as case after case comes before the court, challenging his core values, John makes a fateful decision: He breaks with his colleagues in fundamental ways, becoming the nation's prime defender of the rights of Black people, immigrant laborers, and people in distant lands occupied by the US. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eHarlan's dissents, particularly in \u003ci\u003ePlessy v. Ferguson\u003c\/i\u003e, were widely read and a source of hope for decades. Thurgood Marshall called Harlan's \u003ci\u003ePlessy\u003c\/i\u003e dissent his \"Bible\"--and his legal roadmap to overturning segregation. In the end, Harlan's words built the foundations for the legal revolutions of the New Deal and Civil Rights eras. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eSpanning from the Civil War to the Civil Rights movement and beyond, \u003ci\u003eThe Great Dissenter\u003c\/i\u003e is a \"magnificent\" (Douglas Brinkley) and \"thoroughly researched\" (\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e) rendering of the American legal system's most significant failures and most inspiring successes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePeter S. Canellos is the author of \u003ci\u003eThe Great Dissenter: The Story of John Marshall Harlan, America's Judicial Hero\u003c\/i\u003e, and the editor of the bestselling \u003ci\u003eLast Lion: The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy. \u003c\/i\u003eHe is currently managing editor for enterprise at \u003ci\u003ePOLITICO\u003c\/i\u003e, and also has been \u003ci\u003ePOLITICO\u003c\/i\u003e's executive editor, leading the newsroom during the 2016 presidential coverage; and the editorial page editor of \u003ci\u003eThe Boston Globe.\u003c\/i\u003e He has also been a Pulitzer Prize finalist, a recipient of the American Society of Newspaper Editors award in 2011 for excellence in editorial writing along with the 2022 George Polk Award, Robin Toner Award, and News Leaders Association Batten Medal for his writing about the Supreme Court.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Simon \u0026 Schuster","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50615342563602,"sku":"9781501188213","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_7a6f3af3-cce1-4336-8d72-e3f453259053.jpg?v=1771333986","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-great-dissenter-the-story-of-john-marshall-harlan-americas-judicial-hero-9781501188213","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}