Alexander Mitchell Palmer served as U.S. attorney general from 1919 to 1921 under President Woodrow Wilson. Palmer is regarded as one of the most controversial attorneys general in U.S. history, as he was responsible for a series of mass arrests of left-wing radicals after World War I that shocked many Americans. Palmer's aggressive tactics toward allegedly subversives destroyed his political future and triggered a new movement for the protection of civil liberties.

Palmer was born on May 4, 1872 in Moosehood, Pennsylvania. After graduating form Swarthmore College in 1891, he attended three laws schools but did not graduate. Nevertheless, he passed the Pennsylvania bar exam in 1893 and joined a small law firm. Despite just starting out in his profession, Palmer became deeply involved in Democratic Party politics. However, it would take him many years to earn his chance at elective office, during which time he left his law firm and started...