A collection of biographies of ten American lawyers. Some are well-known, such as Thurgood Marshall and Morris Dees and Ralpha Nader; others, such as Belva Lockwood and Samuel Leibowitz, are not. Each chapter is accompanied by an annotated bibliography, a chronology, and a table of cases.

Throughout America's history, lawyers with a crusading zeal have, through their moral stance, intellectual integrity, and sheer brilliance, made use of the law to fight social injustice. In short biographical chapters, the authors tell the stories of ten of these lawyers. Some are well known: Thurgood Marshall; William Kunstler; Louis Brandeis; Morris Dees; Clarence Darrow; and Ralph Nader. Others are not so well known, but deserve to be. All are fascinating and influential attorneys who rose to the top of their profession, and this examination of their lives and careers illuminates key issues in American history in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. An annotated bibliography, a chronology of the person's life and work, and helpful tables of cases detailing their most prominent cases accompany each chapter.