Just more than 100 years ago on June 1, 1916, Louis D. Brandeis was confirmed to the Supreme Court of the United States. In his new book, Louis D. Brandeis: American Prophet, Professor Jeffrey Rosen takes a look at the man he calls the most prescient constitutional philosopher of the twentieth century.
A constitutional law scholar who also serves as the President and CEO of the National Constitution Center, Professor Rosen debuted the new book at an event in Philadelphia. He also discussed the book on June 22 at the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue in Washington, D.C.
A description of the book and his conversation with noted Brandeis experts Philippa Strum of the Wilson Center and Melvin Urofsky of Virginia Commonwealth University can be viewed below.
From the Publisher
According to Jeffrey Rosen, Louis D. Brandeis was "the Jewish Jefferson," the greatest critic of what he called "the curse of bigness," in business and government, since the author of the Declaration of Independence. Published to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of his Supreme Court confirmation on June 1, 1916, Louis D. Brandeis: American Prophet argues that Brandeis was the most farseeing constitutional philosopher of the twentieth century. In addition to writing the most famous article on the right to privacy, he also wrote the most important Supreme Court opinions about free speech, freedom from government surveillance, and freedom of thought and opinion. And as the leader of the American Zionist movement, he convinced Woodrow Wilson and the British government to recognize a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Combining narrative biography with a passionate argument for why Brandeis matters today, Rosen explores what Brandeis, the Jeffersonian prophet, can teach us about historic and contemporary questions involving the Constitution, monopoly, corporate and federal power, technology, privacy, free speech, and Zionism.
-Yale University Press
Discussing Brandeis at the National Constitution Center