Charles Evans Hughes and the Dawning of Modern America - by Joanne Reitano (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

The essential biography of Charles Evans Hughes, whose indelible career in politics and law shaped American modernization in the twentieth century.

In the first full-life biographical study of Charles Evans Hughes in over seventy years, Joanne Reitano provides a fresh assessment of Hughes's distinguished, multifaceted public service during the first half of the twentieth century. His exceptional career included the roles of governor of New York (1906-1910), associate justice and presidential candidate (1910-1916), secretary of state (1921-1925), and chief justice of the Supreme Court (1930-1941).

A household name in his own time, Hughes challenged bossism in New York politics, championed post-World War I internationalism, and brokered the world's first arms limitation agreement. On the Supreme Court, he was instrumental in modernizing legal doctrines concerning the interstate commerce clause, substantive due process, and civil liberties. Reitano unpacks the seemingly paradoxical nature of Hughes's political and legal careers, arguing that he was neither radical nor reactionary, but a structural reformer and a practical idealist who significantly impacted the nation's transition into the twentieth century.

Drawing on a wealth of sources, Reitano's work will be the definitive account of Charles Evans Hughes for years to come.

Review Quotes

"There may not be a more important, neglected major figure in American political history than Charles Evans Hughes--governor, defeated presidential nominee, secretary of state, and chief justice. Like her subject, Reitano is never boring as she deftly and thoroughly explains Hughes's wide-ranging accomplishments and revealing limitations."--Michael McGerr, author of A Fierce Discontent: The Rise and Fall of the Progressive Movement in America, 1870-1920

"It is remarkable that no one before Joanne Reitano has written such a richly contextualized and comprehensive biography of one of the most significant political and judicial figures of the twentieth century. Charles Evans Hughes was a pivotal figure in establishing the modern Supreme Court, and this book admirably acknowledges the importance of his contributions."--Joel Richard Paul, author of Without Precedent: Chief Justice John Marshall and His Times

"Reitano provides an elegant and concise summary of Hughes's long, sprawling, and multi-faceted career, a task that is so formidable that nearly all previous biographers have explored only parts of Hughes's life. Reitano is at home in discussing politics, governance, diplomacy, and constitutional law in ways that make the book useful for scholars and highly accessible to general readers. She relates Hughes's life to issues that remain important today, while avoiding political polemics or presentism."--William G. Ross, author of The Chief Justiceship of Charles Evans Hughes, 1930-1941

"Joanne Reitano's brilliant biography of Charles Evans Hughes fills a critical gap in our understanding of American political history. Perhaps as much as the figures that he was matched against and whose impulsivity and excesses he moderated--men such as Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Franklin Roosevelt--Hughes was central to the development of modern America and to its engagement with the world. Reitano not only brings Hughes, his vision, and his impact into historical focus, but in doing so makes it possible for students and readers of American history to fully understand not only America's response to two devastating world wars and a catastrophic depression but how and why America emerged from these with a renewed and reinvigorated commitment to liberal, republican democracy."--Edward Rhodes, editor of Engineering America: The Rise of the American Professional Class, 1838-1920

"In this long-overdue portrait of the frequently overlooked and misunderstood statesman who held high positions in politics, law, and diplomacy, Reitano paints Hughes as a voice of deliberate reform and careful leadership during a period of rapid change. This nuanced and contextualized biography enriches our understanding of an important participant in the shaping of modern American governance."--Benjamin A. Coates, author of Legalist Empire: International Law and American Foreign Relations in the Early Twentieth Century