Rating: 
Summary: Solid account of Warren and his plunge into liberal policies
Review: Cray does a fine job with this biography and I will be sure to read some of his other books. He presents Warren's life in a factual manner, without judgement, which to me is one of the keys to writing a biography. Thank God he didn't get into telling us whether Warren was right or wrong, instead he leaves that up to the reader. This book does not lose itself in the legal technicalites of Warren's numerous liberal decisions which is good because if it did, the book would be 2,000 pages long. Enjoyed it, somewhat tedious, but that was the subject, not the author.
Rating: 
Summary: Well-Written, Exhaustively-Researched Book. Excellent!
Review: Cray has done an admirable job of chronicalling the life and times of one of the most influential and misunderstood men of the 20th Century.The book portrays Warren initially as an ambitious politician with uncompromising moral values during the early part of his career and life as Alameda County District Attorney, California Attorney General, and California Governor (hardly the political hack that a previous reviewer described). Appointed as Chief Justice of the United States in 1953, "Chief Justice" describes in intricate detail the decision-making process that went into the most far-reaching and criticized court decisions in the history of the Supreme Court, including "Brown v. Board of Education", "Mapp v. Ohio", and "Miranda v. Arizona". Cray does a first rate job of showing the reader the conflict Warren had in reconciling a fair result to his pre-appointment philosophies of the law. Cray has done a first rate job with this book in portraying one of this country's most influential and enigmatic persons. Once I started reading it, I couldn't put it down. As an attorney, I've always had great respect for the landmark decisions of the Supreme Court under Warren, and I recommend this novel to anyone who has ever criticized "judicial activism". After reading "Chief Justice", as well as "The Bretheren", I have come to realize just how thankful we as a society should be for Warren's service on the Court. No matter how hard his less enlightened successors (Burger; Rehnquist) have tried to roll back the import of the major decisions of the Warren-led Supreme Court, those decisions will hopefully always stand the test of time.
Rating:
Summary: A Biography That Does Justice to Earl Warren
Review: Despite the reviews that are included here, this excellent biography has received very little attention from the media. I can't understand why. (Frankly, I expected it to get a front page review in the Sunday New York Times Book Review. Instead it has been totally ignored by the Times.)Warren is certainly one of the key American figures of the 20th century and this well written biography vividly portrays the man who changed the course of American history. It deserves to be read. Crey manages to portray Warren as a real person caught up in the forces of history: World War II and the relocation of Japanese Americans in California, the legacy of slavery and the quest for equality by African American citizens, the assasination of JFK. We not only learn "the facts" as they involved Warren but we genuinely get to meet and admire this exceptional but modest man whose principles and values guided his actions. This is biography and history comparable to Doris Kearns-Goodwin and David McCullough. I highly recommend "Chief Justice."
Rating: 
Summary: Good overall, but some unanswered questions
Review: Earl Warren was one of the greatest Americans of the 20th Century, and Cray's biography does justice for him. Warren led the Supreme Court from 1953-1969, perhaps the most turbulent period in American history outside the Civil War. His rulings have shaped modern jurisprudence and, despite their controversial nature when they were issued, have repeatedly shown their wisdom since. The author also spends a lot of time on Warren's early political career as a District Attorney, Governor of California and failed Vice Presidential candidate in 1948. Overall, this is a fascinating and well-written biography.
Rating:
Summary: A great biography that does him justice
Review: Earl Warren was one of the greatest Americans of the 20th Century, and Cray's biography does justice for him. Warren led the Supreme Court from 1953-1969, perhaps the most turbulent period in American history outside the Civil War. His rulings have shaped modern jurisprudence and, despite their controversial nature when they were issued, have repeatedly shown their wisdom since. The author also spends a lot of time on Warren's early political career as a District Attorney, Governor of California and failed Vice Presidential candidate in 1948. Overall, this is a fascinating and well-written biography.
Rating:
Summary: Solid account of Warren and his plunge into liberal policies
Review: Ed Cray provides a wonderfully clear and insightful depiction of Earl Warren, former Chief Justice of the United States. As someone who admires many of Warren's decisions, I enjoyed reading a full-length biography of him. Perhaps the best part of the book was Cray's discussion of the intellectual and judicial conflict between Justice Frankfurther--who believed in 'judicial restraint,' wanting to leave as many questions as possible to majoritarian democratic processes--and Warren, who believed the Court should lead the country by promoting social justice. From Cray's book, too, we learn that Warren's 'results-oriented' jurisprudence, while fortunately not mechanical and basically good-hearted, was not without its faults. All in all, this is a great book, one I not only enjoyed reading, but also recommend to others with similar interests.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding
Review: Ed Cray provides a wonderfully clear and insightful depiction of Earl Warren, former Chief Justice of the United States. As someone who admires many of Warren's decisions, I enjoyed reading a full-length biography of him. Perhaps the best part of the book was Cray's discussion of the intellectual and judicial conflict between Justice Frankfurther--who believed in 'judicial restraint,' wanting to leave as many questions as possible to majoritarian democratic processes--and Warren, who believed the Court should lead the country by promoting social justice. From Cray's book, too, we learn that Warren's 'results-oriented' jurisprudence, while fortunately not mechanical and basically good-hearted, was not without its faults. All in all, this is a great book, one I not only enjoyed reading, but also recommend to others with similar interests.
Rating:
Summary: The best biography of the most controversial chief justice
Review: For those who have even heard of Earl Warren he is solely identified as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Ed Cray's wonderful biography clearly shows that he was much more than simply a judge, he was a seminal political figure during the mid-20th century. Cray presents Warren's rise to political stardom in clear and lively terms. Warren represented the progressive wing of the Republican party and was so popular as Govenor of California that he defeated FDR's son after the war and was even the nominee of both parties in one of his elections. Beyond his service in California, Cray also demonstrates just how close Warren came to the oval office when he ran as VP with Thomas Dewey, who would likely have won the election had he followed Warren's advice. Cray does a more than adequate job in detailing how Warren got on the Court through a back room deal with Eisenhower. Warren was hardly a great judge in the sense of a brilliant legal mind, he typically decided cases based upon what was fair and left it up to his law clerks to come up with the technical theories to support it. But Warren was a great chief justice in a time when the Court needed a brilliant politician to heal the deep divisions that existed between different members of the Court. In the end Warren lead the Court through its single most creative period and it is amazing, regardless of your opinion on the outcome of this period, just how much this liberal Court accomplished. Cray's work is hardly ground breaking, it presents no significant new additions to our knowledge of Warren, but he does present a huge life in a relatively concise work. This is a book that is well worth reading if you are interested in either the Court or American political culture in the mid-20th century.
Rating:
Summary: Ed Cray does as well as possible with a difficult subject.
Review: I read this book with the hope of gaining new insights into the Supreme Court. I came away disillusioned!
Ed Cray is a tremendous writer and I enjoyed his "General of the Army." But Earl Warren is so dull that the book cannot help but be boring.
I always imagined that Warren was a great legal scholar. In fact, I thought all our Justices were supposed to be legal scholars. But Warren was simply a dull, plodding political hack.
No wonder Eisenhower was reluctant to appoint him to the post of Chief Justice.
Thanks to Ed Cray's work I see our Highest Court in a whole new light!
Rating:
Summary: I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
Review: This book is really two completely distinctive stories. The first was about Earl Warren's youth and political career as District Attorney in Alameda County, Governor of California, and finally Republican Vice Presidential candidate. Then, half way through the book, Earl Warren is appointed Chief Justice and the story moves from California to Washington with a completely different cast of characters. The first part of the book was interesting; the second part was wonderful. The discussions about Supreme Court procedure and protocol, the history of the court, intermixed with the political climate of the 50's and 60's, and the various personalities and backgrounds of the justices were all fascinating. And the descriptions of the monumental decisions of the Warren Court were stirring. The book is not overtly dramatic. Earl Warren was a carefully guarded man performing a duty that required a non-partisan appearance. And some of the cases required several readings before I could really understand them. The writing was lucid, but the cases are complicated - at least for my limited mind. (The state law says this, legal precedent suggests that, the amendment applies to federal law, not the state, but only if it's a felony. Warren, Black, Douglas signed the majority opinion. Frankfurter wrote a dissenting opinion. Brennan wrote a concurring opinion agreeing with the decision but opposing the reasoning behind it. Then they all agreed to narrow the decision, but to remand it to state court. Hmmm.) I will have two lasting impressions of the book: First, Earl Warren's enormous and endemic sense of fairness. Second, how narrowly many of our civil liberties were won - often by just a 5-4 or 6-3 majority - and how little it would take to overturn those decisions.
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