| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 105.3

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to the AHR online. About 248 words from this article are provided below; about 544 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the American Historical Association, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time. AHA members can go to the AHA individual membership section to locate their member numbers.
If you are not a member of the American Historical Association, you can:: • Join the AHA and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the American Historical Review.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the American Historical Review (104.3-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the American Historical Review.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 105.3 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Canada and the United States

Richard Polenberg. The World of Benjamin Cardozo: Personal Values and the Judicial Process. Paperback edition. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 1997. Pp. xiv, 288. $19.95.

By any measure, Benjamin N. Cardozo remains a shining star in the American judicial constellation. Elected to the Supreme Court of New York in 1914, he was instantly elevated to the Court of Appeals, where he served (including six years as Chief Justice) until his appointment to the Supreme Court in 1932. Nationally acclaimed as the worthiest successor to Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Cardozo participated in the New Deal judicial revolution until his death in 1938. 1

Rejecting arid legal formalism, Cardozo resolutely adapted venerable legal principles to developing social needs. A judge, he knew, did not find law but made it. In The Nature of the Judicial Process (1921), Cardozo acknowledged judge-made law "as one of the existing realities of life" (p. 10). Judges were invariably guided by "inherited instincts, traditional beliefs, acquired convictions"—all of which shaped "an outlook on life, a conception of social needs" (p. 12). 2

Yet Cardozo became an icon of judicial self-restraint. Intensely self-conscious about the dangers inherent in "judge-made" law, he was sanctified by bench and bar for his detachment, his freedom from his past and his predilections, and his deference to legislative judgment. Cardozo understood that the rule of law must not rest upon "sentiment or benevolence or some vague notion of social welfare" (p. 242). . . .

There are about 544 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.