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Article: John Marshall Harlan: The Last Whig Justice.
- Article from:
- The Historian
- Article date:
- June 22, 1993
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1993 Phi Alpha Theta, History Honor Society, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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For a justice of such importance, students of the Supreme Court ha,,e given slight attention to John Marshall Harlan, the "Great Dissenter." Harlan served for thirty-three years, from 1877 to 1911, and his opinions, both for the majority and in dissent, are among the landmarks of US. constitutional history. Loren P. Beth, a political scientist and authority on the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century history of the court, has filled this vacuum with impressive results. Beth has written the first full-length scholarly biography of Harlan, and he has done so with remarkable balance, a fine sense of life on the court during Harlan's era, and a wonderful ability to ...