A key document in the Progressive era, Other People's Money conveys a sense of moral outrage and political anger over the costs of the industrialization of the United States on traditional social and political values. A devastating book, "Other People's Money" was written with eloquence, force, and passion by Louis D. Brandeis, who would one day be a future Supreme Court justice and one of history's greatest Americans. As it turns out, he wrote a book that applies just as well in the early 21st century as it did in the early 20th. Perhaps the best part, for busy readers, is that "Other People's Money" is a short tome which can be polished off in one sitting. Expect to be floored, however, by how effortlessly Brandeis's arguments of so many years ago carry over to today.
About the Author: Louis D. Brandeis (1856-1941) was an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States from 1916 to 1939. He enrolled at Harvard Law School, graduating at the age of twenty with the highest grade average in the college's history. Brandeis settled in Boston where he became a recognized lawyer through his work on social causes that would benefit society. He helped develop the "right to privacy" concept by writing a Harvard Law Review article of that title, and was thereby credited by legal scholar Roscoe Pound as having accomplished "nothing less than adding a chapter to our law". Years later, a book he published, entitled Other People's Money, suggested ways of curbing the power of large banks and money trusts, which partly explains why he later fought against powerful corporations, monopolies, public corruption, and mass consumerism, all of which he felt were detrimental to American values and culture. He also became active in the Zionist movement, seeing it as a solution to the "Jewish problem" of antisemitism in Europe and Russia, while at the same time being a way to "revive the Jewish spirit." When his family's finances became secure, he began devoting most of his time to public causes and was later dubbed the "People's Lawyer." He insisted on serving on cases without pay so that he would be free to address the wider issues involved. The Economist magazine calls him "A Robin Hood of the law." Among his notable early cases were actions fighting railroad monopolies; defending workplace and labor laws; helping create the Federal Reserve System; and presenting ideas for the new Federal Trade Commission (FTC). He achieved recognition by submitting a case brief, later called the "Brandeis Brief," which relied on expert testimony from people in other professions to support his case, thereby setting a new precedent in evidence presentation. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson nominated Brandeis to become a member of the U.S. Supreme Court. He was eventually confirmed by the Senate by a vote of 47 to 22 on June 1, 1916, and became one of the most famous and influential figures ever to serve on the high court. His opinions were, according to legal scholars, some of the "greatest defenses" of freedom of speech and the right to privacy ever written by a member of the high court.