How could the man who presided over so many controversial Supreme Court decisions and led such a notable political career seem to be, and be regarded as, a person of quite modest presence and abilities? White, a former law clerk to Warren, goes back to Warren's roots in Progressivism to demonstrate the underlying consistencies beneath the apparent paradoxes of the man's career.

"White's splendid new biography helps us to understand better Warren's remarkable career from district attorney of Alameda County, California, to Chief Justice of the United States....[It] establishes White as one of our premier legal historians."--American Bar Foundation Research Journal "The first significant legal biography of Chief Justice Earl Warren."--Stanford Law Review "White's analysis is penetrating, his literary style engaging."--Political Science Quarterly "A fascinating book about a towering figure of our time."--Virginia Quarterly Review "A serious and fascinating study, relating Warren the man and Warren the judge, and throwing fresh light on an amazing period in the Supreme Court's history."--Anthony Lewis, The New York Times Book Review "Seems likely to serve for some time as the standard against which other biographies of the controversial chief justice will be measured."--American Historical Review "An excellent introduction to a major figure in twentieth-century American history...solid, informative, and perceptive."--Journal of American History "Mr. White has written an exciting biography of this great man and provided...a wealth of material for the continuing debate over Warren's role."--The New Republic "A first-rate biography."--Journal of Southern History "The most important book about the law published this year. Both a fresh exploration of one of the most astonishing political metamorphoses in American history, and a profound but readable explanation of some of the main problems of constitutional law and jurisprudence."--Baltimore Sun "White has gone beyond the labels and given us the man....[He] makes a serious and usually successful effort to show us the people and forces, events, idea, plans and accidents that made Warren what he became."--Los Angeles Times "White is remarkably successful....[He] develops a thesis of Warren's decision-making process with which every future Warren biographer or Supreme Court historian will have to cope."--Washington Post Book World "White's 'interpretive biography' of Earl Warren as Jurist and Man rather than lengthy life history is particularly well suited to political science classes and teaches the richness of the American judicial process in the life of a most interesting Chief Justice."--Bradley S. Chilton, University of Southern Mississippi "[A] valiant biography....Thanks to White's honesty, skill, and diligence, it is a reliable collection of materials providing an opportunity to appraise Warren's judicial performance as a whole, an opportunity that non-specialists rarely have for any member of the Court."--Yale Law Journal