Shelf 4 of 8 · One Decision, Book-Length
Landmark Cases
The biography-of-a-case genre — a single decision told at book length, from Dred Scott to Roe.
The reading list — 18 books
Kluger, Richard. Simple Justice: The History of Brown v. Board of Education and Black America’s Struggle for Equality. 1976.
Lewis, Anthony. Gideon’s Trumpet. 1964.
Lewis, Anthony. Make No Law: The Sullivan Case and the First Amendment. 1991.
Friendly, Fred W. Minnesota Rag: The Dramatic Story of the Landmark Supreme Court Case That Gave New Meaning to Freedom of the Press. 1981.
Polenberg, Richard. Fighting Faiths: The Abrams Case, the Supreme Court, and Free Speech. 1987.
Healy, Thomas. The Great Dissent: How Oliver Wendell Holmes Changed His Mind. 2013.
Garrow, David J. Liberty and Sexuality: The Right to Privacy and the Making of Roe v. Wade.
King, Gilbert. Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America. 2012.
Lane, Charles. The Day Freedom Died: The Colfax Massacre, the Supreme Court, and the Betrayal of Reconstruction. 2008.
Fehrenbacher, Don E. The Dred Scott Case: Its Significance in American Law and Politics. 1978.
Finkelman, Paul. Supreme Injustice: Slavery in the Nation’s Highest Court. 2018.
Stewart, David O. Impeached: The Trial of President Andrew Johnson and the Fight for Lincoln’s Legacy. 2009.
Holt, Michael F. By One Vote: The Disputed Presidential Election of 1876. 2008.
Jones, Howard. Mutiny on the Amistad: The Saga of a Slave Revolt and Its Impact on American Abolition, Law, and Diplomacy. 1987.
Lofgren, Charles A. The Plessy Case: A Legal-Historical Interpretation. 1987.
Garraty, John A., ed. Quarrels That Have Shaped the Constitution. 1964.
Friendly, Fred W., and Martha J. H. Elliott. The Constitution, That Delicate Balance. 1984.
Irons, Peter. The Courage of Their Convictions: Sixteen Americans Who Fought Their Way to the Supreme Court. 1988.
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