Biography of Louis Dembitz Brandeis

FAIN: FB-50681-04

Melvin I. Urofsky
Virginia Commonwealth University (Richmond, VA 23284-9005)

Since the publication of the Letters of Louis D. Brandeis beginning in 1971, there has been an explosion of monographic studies about different facets of his career. I propose to write a new biography of Brandeis, taking into account not only the secondary literature, but a great deal of manuscript material that has become available over the last two decades. I believe that Brandeis had four distinct careers--a successful attorney at the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries, a progressive reformer, a Zionist, and a Supreme Court justice--and that these careers, as well as his personal life, constitute what Paul Freund described as "a mind of one piece." Utilizing new primary and secondary sources, I want to show how each of Brandeis's "careers" influenced the others, how his Zionism connected to his progressive philosophy, how his career as a lawyer informed his work on the Supreme Court, and his professional and private lives intertwined.