He has been through more wars than a whole regiment of Pershings. And most of them have been struggles to the death, without codes or quarter."

Darrow is mostly a forgotten libertarian, unknown to the new generation. The Mises Institute kept his name alive with Jeff Riggenbach's podcast about the famous barrister and the publishing of a new edition of Darrow's 1902 book Resist Not Evil, both in 2011.

John A. Farrell in his book Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned brings Darrow to life. The reader must remember there was no TV, no internet, no radio, and thus, "the era's courthouse clashes and public debates played the role of mass entertainment. It was not unusual for the gallery to be packed with prominent lawyers, off-duty judges, newspapermen, and politicians, and the hallways outside jammed with spectators trying to get in, all to see Darrow close for the defense. At times a mob of thousands would spill through the corridors, down the stairs, and out into the yard, to surround a courthouse and listen at the windows."

With a subject like Darrow, Farrell had plenty of Darrow's soaring rhetoric to quote from. Darrow's closing arguments would last for days, delivered without referring to a single note. The jury, the spectators, often the judge, and Darrow himself would be left in tears when he finished.

Amazon's pitch for the book starts perfectly, "Clarence Darrow is the lawyer every law school student dreams of being: on the side of right, loved by many women, played by Spencer Tracy in Inherit the Wind. His days-long closing arguments delivered without notes won miraculous reprieves for men doomed to hang."