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Books > Law > Jurisprudence & general issues > Legal profession > General
Oliver Wendell Holmes escaped death twice as a young Union officer
in the Civil War. He lived ever after with unwavering moral
courage, unremitting scorn for dogma, and an insatiable
intellectual curiosity. During his nearly three decades on the
Supreme Court, he wrote a series of opinions that would prove
prophetic in securing freedom of speech, protecting the rights of
criminal defendants, and ending the Court's reactionary resistance
to social and economic reforms. As a pioneering legal scholar,
Holmes revolutionized the understanding of common law. As an
enthusiastic friend, he wrote thousands of letters brimming with an
abiding joy in fighting the good fight. Drawing on many previously
unpublished letters and records, Stephen Budiansky offers the
fullest portrait yet of this pivotal American figure.
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