| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 88.4

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to JAH online. About 174 words from this article are provided below; about 352 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the Organization of American Historians, 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.
If you are not a member of the Organization of American Historians, you can:: • Join the OAH and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the Journal of American History.
• 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 Journal of American History (86.1-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the Journal of American History.
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 Journal of American History, 88.4 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

A Chief Justice's Progress: John Marshall from Revolutionary Virginia to the Supreme Court. By David Robarge. (Westport: Greenwood, 2000. xxvi, 364 pp. $65.00, ISBN 0-313-30858-6.)

This is a book long awaited—an exhaustively researched, well-written, and judiciously interpreted "half-life" of Chief Justice John Marshall. Exhibiting a sweeping mastery of both primary and secondary materials, David Robarge's revised doctoral dissertation is unquestionably the best scholarly biography of "the Great Chief Justice" yet to be published. As such it demands immediate attention from anyone wishing to understand Marshall or his impact on the Constitution and the U.S. Supreme Court. 1

Conceding Marshall's backwoods origin, Robarge nevertheless concludes that "in their effort to humanize Marshall, historians probably have made too much of his rusticity in describing his legal style." Family background, his father's example and influence, and Marshall's own intelligence and intellectual interests provided a solid foundation. The future chief justice's rise to prominence as a practitioner was based on his ability to learn quickly and reason logically, both characteristic of Virginia's late-eighteenth-century legal culture. . . .

There are about 352 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.