ice. When the Party at last appeared tonhim to be the instrument of a foreignntyranny, Wolfe abandoned it even at thenrisk of his life and transferred his supportnto rival radical groups which werenthen still fighting the communists forncontrol of the far left.nJosephson, by contrast, dabbled innpolitics as he did in adultery and learning.nSpending most of his adult yearsnat the edge of the Communist Party, hentook fashionable stands and signed petitionsndecorated by the nafties of othern”bright intellectuals.” His obliviousnessnto Soviet imperialism and to America’snvirtues may be entirely understandable,ngiven his utterly frivolousnexistence. His one apparent contributionnto historical scholarship is an elenJudiciary PugilismnRoy M. Cohn: How To Stand Up fornYour Rights—and Win!; Simon &nSchuster; New York.nby Otto J. ScottnX he jacket on his latest book showsnRoy M. Cohn looking at the worldnthrough lowering eyes and with a tightnmouth, like a man ready to fight. This,nfrom all reports, is appropriate. Mr.nCohn is a noted fighter with whom nonone today would lightly tangle.nIt was not always thus, and thereinnlies the tale. A precocious and ambitiousnson of a liberal Democratic New Yorknjudge, Mr. Cohn raced through highnschool in three years and, in anothernthree and a half, managed to earn bothnhis bachelor’s and law degrees from ColumbianUniversity. At twenty-one, thenlegal minimum, he was a full-fledgednlawyer and Assistant U.S. Attorney. Henprosecuted over two hundred criminalncases involving narcotics and counterfeiting.nAt a tender twenty-three he wasnMr. Scott is a frequent contributor tonthe Chronicles.n141nChronicles of Culturengantly written but scantily documentednaccount of the Gilded Age. When hisnonesided description of grasping “robbernbarons” came under critical scrutinynsoon after the Second World War,nJosephson predictably denounced hisncritics as apologists for capitalist oppression.nThe charge rang hollow innview of the impeccably liberal credentialsnof some of his critics and thenrecognizably dispassionate judgments ofnothers, like Allan Nevins. Unfortunately,nage failed to bring him thenslightest maturity. His later years werenpassed in the same graceless fashion asnhis early ones: chasing other men’snwives and sniping at simple Americansnwho provided him with the opulence henenjoyed to the fullest. Dnthe prosecutor in the Julius and EthelnRosenberg trials. At twenty-five he wasnthe confidential assistant to the AttorneynGeneral of the United States. A yearnlater he was chief counsel to the Subcommitteenon Permanent Investigationsnchaired by Senator Joe McCarthy. Andnit was at this point in his career thatnRoy M. Cohn was savaged in unforgettablenfashion, which turned him into anhistorical figure—and a fighter parnexcellence.nworth the time. Let it suffice to saynthat Robert Kennedy conceived an implacablenjealousy of and hatred for RoynM. Cohn, and Mr. Cohn was indictednthree times on criminal charges by anKennedy-appointed U.S. Attorney. Henwas acquitted on all three occasions,nbut, according to this book, he remainsnsubject to an IRS investigation (as henhas been for the past twenty years). Allnthis is reason enough to stamp a certainngrimness on Mr. Cohn’s countenance,nand for him to regard the human racenwith a certain wariness.nIn How To Stand Up for YournRights—and Win! Mr. Cohn does notnconjure up mythical cases, a la the HarvardnSchool of Law. He cites real peoplenwho were brutally mistreated by thenpolice, or subjected to the vindictivenessnof divorcing wives or husbands ornspurned lovers, or cheated by insurancenfirms unwilling to keep their promisesnto the injured, or driven to desperationnby heartless civil “servants.” Nor doesnMr. Cohn cite only cases in which theninjured were provided redress. Courtnrulings in the United States are, alas,nas whimsical as those rendered by thenCaliphs oi Arabian Nights. The separatenlegal systems of the fifty states andnthousands of counties, in addition tonFederal statutes, have provided us withna myriad of laws that is all but impossiblento penetrate. One judge whom Mr.nCohn cites rendered a ridiculous verdictn”That’s Roy. Arrogant. Aggressive. A promoter. Anything; but iiftoimiahlL-.”n—New York ‘I’ime.K Hook ReviewnIt would be tempting at this point tondigress into a coniparable portrait ofnRobert F. Kennedy, another young mannwho served the McCarthy Committeenas Assistant Counsel. But the role ofnthe Kennedys—father Joseph and sonsnRobert and John—in connection withnMcCarthy is so replete with doublendealing and slipperiness that the heartnsinks at the thought. It is too intricatenfor a readable summary and too revealingnof a family whose brilliance wasnleavened by unscrupulousness to bennnin alliterative nonsense and appendednfootnotes in evident pride of his ownnwit. Time and again Mr. Cohn citesncases of malice that were denied bynlower or upper courts, verdicts whosenawards were shaved or others whosenclaims were too modest.nLawyers are aware, of course, of allnthese difficulties. Mr. Cohn cites thenChief Justice of the United States, whonopined that half of all practicing lawyersnare incompetent. Since there are overn258,000 lawyers in the land, that wouldn