The first biography of important yet neglected jurist John Marshall Harlan, written by author Tinsley Yarbrough, is a detailed story of John Harlan starting from his fortunate youth to his retirement and finally, to his death. Yarbrough studied the significant events that shaped the justice’s jurisprudence; his early life and complicated relationships with his family, his education at Oxford and Princeton, his career as a prosecutor in Prohibition, his involvement in Republican Party movements, service in the Army Air Force and his work as one of the country’s finest corporate attorneys.

John Marshall Harlan: Great Dissenter of the Warren Court focuses more on Harlan’s tenure on the high bench. Yarbrough put together discussions of the justice’s relations with colleagues, staff and clerks, which shows what his role was in the decision making process in the Court. The book is likewise an examination of his jurisprudence. The justice’s method of constitutional interpretation exalted example, respect to governmental power and decisions related to case facts, but he too approved of an ever-changing and creative approach of constitutional development, allowing extensive readings of constitutional rights.

Yarbrough also has details about Harlan’s close relationship with Justice Frankfurter; how he, in spite of being friends and their tight bond, Harlan still held on to his own position, judicially and personally, on the Burger and Warren litigation. The author specified the basis and importance of his oppositions in various cases like Miranda and the Pentagon Papers.

Solidly researched, well-written and insightfully argued, Tinsley Yarbrough’s memoir of John Marshall Harlan provides a fascinating story of the life and times of a dissenter who was recognized by admirers as a “lawyer’s lawyer” and a “judge’s judge.” Emerging at an era when the high court has started to adapt to Harlan’s methods, this book proffers an essential viewpoint on civil rights, the Court and an important figure in the history of the two.