Earlier this year, I read an engrossing biography of the Wright Brothers by the estimable David McCullough --- engrossing, that is, until about three-quarters through the book, when the Wrights are chiefly trying to build their business and deal with a morass of patent litigation. They learn through trial and error how to build a workable airplane, they show off their creation to skeptical groups in Ohio and adoring crowds in Paris, and then the story kind of sputters out, with Wilbur suffering an early death and Orville pottering around his Dayton research facility, working on the study of aeronautics. The fact that the book trails off isn’t McCullough’s fault --- that’s what happened, and he does his best to chronicle it, but the story just isn’t there.

In reading JOHN MARSHALL: The Man Who Made the Supreme Court, I was concerned that the same thing would happen. The well-known and monumental Marbury v. Madison case takes place very early in Marshall’s term on the court, which would stretch out to well over 30 years.

Marshall’s life, up until he was elevated to the Court, is lively and interesting, and author Richard Brookhiser does a masterful job of showing the forces that shaped his philosophy. Marshall was, all his long life, an acolyte of George Washington, under whom he served in the Revolutionary War. After the war, he lived a public-spirited life as a Virginia lawyer, serving on the state’s Constitutional ratification convention and in Congress --- and, not incidentally, engaging in a robust social life.

"Marshall’s life, up until he was elevated to the Court, is lively and interesting, and author Richard Brookhiser does a masterful job of showing the forces that shaped his philosophy."

Marshall also served as a diplomat on his one foreign adventure, getting mixed up in the so-called “XYZ Affair,” which I had never actually understood until reading Brookhiser’s concise and neat explanation of just what it was and why it stirred up anti-French resentment in the young Republic. Marshall then was appointed Secretary of State by John Adams for the last year of his presidency, and as a lame-duck, Adams nominated Marshall to the office of Chief Justice.

Marbury was based on the rush to confirm Federalist appointees in the wake of Adams’ defeat by Thomas Jefferson, and so it was one of the first decisions of the Marshall Court. Brookhiser does an able job of deciphering both the odd series of events that led up to the case and Marshall’s closely reasoned, nearly impenetrable decision. But thissection does more than just shed light on Marbury; it sets the pattern for the rest of the book.

What remains is over 30 years of Supreme Court cases, none of them as interesting or as monumental as Marbury, all of which are wrapped up in the arcane politics of the era. Brookhiser is a fine prose stylist with impeccable flair, but even he struggles to make the details of some of the cases sparkle. The narrative never quite bogs down, but laden as it is with Marshall’s leaden legal prose, it has more than a few rough moments.

Brookhiser is more at home describing Marshall as a political animal --- as the last Federalist in a country that, at least briefly, was all Republican. Unable to direct the Court through political or ideological means, he worked behind the scenes through conviviality and charisma to mold the Court into his own image. Marshall insisted that all the Justices room together while in Washington, discussing cases over wine and darts. Brookhiser argues that his leadership of the Court, resulting in unanimous verdicts, not only led to its momentous decisions but firmly placed the Court as an equal partner in the Constitutional order.

JOHN MARSHALL will please legal scholars more than casual readers, but even the latter will find much to enjoy and savor here.