When Maximilian Longley published his last book, "Discordant Sound," the "News of Orange County" in Hillsborough, North Carolina proudly proclaimed: "For those readers who enjoy political commentary, they will be pleased to learn that our area has its own essayist."

Now Maximilian Longley goes from political essays to biography, telling us about the life and times of federal judge Halsted Ritter. Ritter was the brother of historian Mary Ritter Beard, as well as being a history-maker in his own right. As a reformist lawyer, he campaigned for Prohibition. In the 1920s, when Prohibition was...