R. Kent Newmyer is Distinguished Alumni Professor, Emeritus, at the University of Connecticut, and Professor of Law and History at the University of Connecticut School of Law, where he teaches courses in American constitutional and legal history. His teaching and research specialty is the legal and political history of the early republic. His judicial biography, Joseph Story: Statesman of the Old Republic (1985), received the Littleton-Griswold Award from the American Historical Association for the best book on law and society for 1985; a Certificate of Merit from the American Bar Association; and the Benchmark Book Award for 1985-86 in recognition of its contribution to legal history and the role of the judiciary. His most recent work, John Marshall and the Heroic Age of the Supreme Court (2001), received the Jules and Frances Landry Award from LSU Press and was the winner of the Fifth Annual Library of Virginia Award for the best nonfiction book for 2002.