was bitterly despised, greatly loved, and also profoundly misunderstood.
"Lonely is the man who understands," or, as Emerson says, "To be great is
to be misunderstood."

All agree that Brandeis's achievements are remarkable, but as to the
nature of his talents, as to the mainspring of his life and work, opinions
are varying and contradictory. Some corporation heads and their "law-
yer adjuncts" still see in him Machiavellian duplicity, see in his pose as
champion of the people a device to gain notoriety and large fees. ² Others
in business and finance find him a dangerous radical, bent on destroying
established institutions. Still others praise his crusading humanitarianism,
his sacrifice of personal ambition to help the poor. Observers of more prac-
tical idealism see him as a dreamer. To other men he is an ingenious
pioneer, dealing systematically and objectively with our complicated pecu-
niary culture, using the techniques of science to discover the sources of
power in our society, and the methods of controlling that power for the
public good. Some of his acts give credence to each of these verdicts.

Brandeis rarely failed to shift his position when the ground he was
standing on went soft. Critics, as usual, leveled against him the charge of
inconsistency. How, some still ask, could he score financial success as a big
corporation lawyer only to become so fierce an opponent of bigness, monop-
oly, and the money trust? How, they inquire, could he serve corporations--
his clients--and then battle them in the name of that vague entity--the
people? How, with his heralded liberalism, could he maintain so lucrative
a law practice and die a multimillionaire? And since he did, in fact, make
a fortune during the period 1879-1907, the reasons for his volte-face
were suspect. Why would he support a man at one time and later oppose
him, defend a corporation and later prosecute it, simultaneously advise and
oppose big business? ³ Plausibly enough, his enemies saw him as a band-
wagon demagogue.

Each of these queries has a kernel of truth, making it easy for his enemies
to accuse Brandeis of subordinating his principles to his purse. He was
most conspicuous in the public eye when monopoly seemed to many the
practicable solution for business depressions. Brandeis disagreed. He sought
to block the trend toward bigness and monopoly as inimical to efficiency,
individualism, true laissez faire, and democracy, as heading the nation pre-
cisely in the direction capitalists professed their desire to avoid--state so-
cialism. Then he was fiercely denounced as playing both ends against the
middle in an effort to line his own pocket. When he endorsed the social
and economic value of trade unionism, and at the turn of the century pro-
nounced the correction of irregular employment our most urgent task,
spokesmen for labor claimed him as their own while corporation magnates

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