New from the University Press of Kansas:
Chief Executive to Chief Justice: Taft betwixt the White House and Supreme Court (Nov. 2014), by
Lewis L. Gould (Monmouth College). The Press explains:
As our 27th president from 1909 to 1913, and then as chief justice of
the Supreme Court from 1921 to 1930, William Howard Taft was the only
man ever to lead two of America’s three governing branches. But between
these two well-documented periods in office, there lies an eight-year
patch of largely unexplored political wilderness. It was during this
time, after all, that Taft somehow managed to rise from his ignominious
defeat by both Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt in the 1912
election to achieve his lifelong goal of becoming chief justice. In the
first in-depth look at this period in Taft’s singular career, eminent
presidential historian Lewis L. Gould reveals how a man often derided
for his lack of political acumen made his way through the hazards of
Republican affairs to gain his objective.
In the years between the presidency and the Supreme Court
Taft was, as one commentator observed, “the greatest of globe trotters
for humanity.” Gould tracks him as he crisscrosses the country from 1913
through the summer of 1921, the inveterate traveler reinventing himself
as an elder Republican statesman with no visible political ambition
beyond informing and serving the public. Taft was, however, working the
long game, serving on the National War Labor Board, fighting for the
League of Nations, teaching law and constitutional history at Yale,
making up his differences with Roosevelt, all the while negotiating the
Republican Party’s antipathy and his own intense dislike of Woodrow
Wilson, whose wartime policies and battle for the league he was bound to
support. Throughout, his judicial ambition shaped his actions, with
surprising adroitness.
This account of Taft’s journey from the White House to
the Supreme Court fills a large gap in our understanding of an important
American politician and jurist. It also discloses how intricate and
complicated public affairs had become during the era of World War I and
its aftermath, an era in which William Howard Taft, as a shrewd
commentator on the political scene, a resourceful practitioner of party
politics, and a man of consummate ambition, made a significant and
lasting mark.
Reviewers say:
“Lew Gould has long been an indispensable guide to the
presidency, particularly during the McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, Taft
and Wilson eras. In this engaging and engrossing book, Gould tells the
story of how Taft satisfied his deepest ambition and became chief
justice of the United States.”—Laura Kalman
More information is available
here.
