The bestselling historian and journalist James Rosen provides the first comprehensive account of the brilliant and combative Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia, whose philosophy and judicial opinions defined our legal era.
With Scalia: Rise to Greatness, 1936–1986, the opening installment in a two-volume biography, acclaimed reporter and bestselling historian James Rosen provides the first comprehensive account of the life of Justice Antonin Scalia, whose singular career in government—including three decades on the Supreme Court—shaped American law and society in the twenty-first century.
Decades in the making, Rise to Greatness tells the story of the kid from Queens who became the first Italian American on the Court and one of the most profoundly influential figures of our time. This volume takes us from Scalia’s birth to his ascension to the Court, providing a fresh and probing look at his Catholic upbringing and education; his stints in academia and published works, some of them obscure and long-overlooked; and his service in the Nixon and Ford administrations, when Scalia played a central role in reforming the U.S. intelligence community and in the approval of sensitive covert operations.
Deeply researched and based on unparalleled access to documentary and personal sources, and written with an intellectual rigor and wit befitting its subject, Rosen’s narrative reads like a novel while presenting startling new insight into the life, mind, career, faith, and legacy of the man whom family and friends called “Nino.” The result is a compelling portrait of an American legend with whom the author personally corresponded, broke bread, drank wine, and braved the streets of the capital as a (nervous) passenger in the justice’s famously speedy BMW.
Rosen has unearthed previously unpublished writing from every phase of Scalia’s career, including private Supreme Court emails, and has interviewed Scalia’s family, classmates, students, colleagues from the Nixon, Ford, and Reagan administrations, priests, poker buddies, hunting companions, and fellow judges and justices.
I was so happy to see this, a biography of Jutice Scalia by someone who didn't hate him, that I started listening it before I realized it was about everything up to his becomming a SCOTUS justice. I certainly hope there's a part 2.
I thought James Rosen did an excellent, fair and quite thorough job. I'm not a big biography reader, but I'm not remembering so many references to prior biographys by others, especially so negatively. Biskupic really gets dissed here repeatedly.
Scalia was one of the titans of the court and he and Clarence Thomas are largely responsible for its turn to sanity and regrounding it in the actual constitution where it belongs. I look forward to book 2, if there is to be such, about his career and his important work after necoming a justice.
Excellent look at the early life of Scalia up to his confirmation. An extraordinary intellect who has had a hand in some of the major American events of the last century. I never knew he played such an important role during the aftermath of Watergate, nor would I have known the extent of his impact on telecommunications in the world, particularly helping the U.S. to gain a stronger foothold in that space. Most of all, the biography presents a man who loves the law and the written and spoken word. A true giant with a larger than life personality, though I found it surprising and somewhat saddening that he never really earned the full respect of his father due to his lack of "work ethic".
The biographer is clearly a partisan and spends some of the time defending Scalia from negative portrayals in previous biographies, but he does so ably and seemingly responsibly in my view. I look forward to reading part 2 when it comes out.
The phrasing and ideology of this biography is extremely ironic for the majority of the book. The author also seems to be possessed by jlo in the amount of times he references scalia as a kid from queens oml.
Really enjoyed this book, very excited for part 2. Primarily an audiobook commuter read, although it was somewhat multi format. Maureen Scalia sounds like an amazing woman. Also, I did not know much about Robert Bork and the Bork/Scalia friendship turned rivalry. Very interesting details about Nixon, Ford, and Reagan presidencies.
I'm not into biographies, but I've watched Rosen's reporting for more than 10 years and found him to be an unbiased observer of world events. So I was excited to read this biography of this egnimatic and influential member of the SCOTUS.
Well-researched and documented, it seemed a bit scattershot in it's approach at first, but the picture it provided of "Little Nino" on his journey to the highest court in the land made for a fascinating and illuminating read.
From what has been said, most authors who have previously tackled Antonin Scalia's early years have smeared him in one way or another. Finally, James Rosen gives factual information, much of what had not been disclosed previously to paint a more accurate reflection of Antonin's early days. This includes his family and childhood education.
It was very apparent early on that Antonin was a go-getter. He was not simply an intellectual, but a charismatic individual who touched many lives. He received glowing honors, awards and words from individuals and entities on the opposite side of the political spectrum. This included Ruth Bader Ginsburg (RBG), whom he had a very genial relationship on the court.
Antonin Scalia brought his love for law and focus on the Constitution to the in the classroom and then in the courts, rising up the ranks to be a shoe-in for the Supreme Court of the United States during the Reagan years. He was not shy about challenging even his most Conservative friends regarding law. He believed in textualism and originalism - and that the Constitution is NOT an evolving document.
What I appreciated about the book was the insight into his intellect, family life and historical touchpoints - his many interactions with individuals most have heard about but didn't know where they fit in (back when many of us were too young to care about politics).
The book overall was very dry however, perhaps because it wasn't written by the individual himself and lacked some details which may have been present if in autobiographical form. Much of the information came from interviewing of individuals, however old film and records were used to help flesh out the story.
An enjoyable read and we all will miss Justice Scalia for his brilliance on the SCOTUS.
1) Joe Biden was in his THIRD Senate term when AS was going through his SCOTUS nomination. I mean, that is WILD. Scalia DIED over SEVEN years ago!!!!
2) I never knew that Scalia was an only child! And when someone said that, since he had nine children, it meant he must love children, he said "no, it means I love my life."
3) I understand the author's efforts to try and equalize Maureen, but it was clear to me that her silent struggle was never fully recognized or appreciated.
4) And this, more than anything. The Bork sub-plot here was the most fascinating one to me. What it taught me, or caused me to realize, was this pattern of the fall of the frontrunner. Of course, maybe too on the nose, reminded me of "All the Truth is Out," which got renamed "The Frontrunner" in the movie version. But here's the point: the frontrunner never makes it. If you are the heir apparent, the one who is the "obvious choice," the Yale-educated, decades on the DC-Circuit choice, you're not going to make it. You're peaking at mile 20 of 26.2. Inevitably, the press, the "machine" on the other side does all that it can to wipe out the frontrunner. But the result? Is always someone who the other side would prefer WORSE than the original candidate. Just think about examples of these people with targets on their backs who were hit - Gary Hart in 1987. Jeb Bush (or Scott Walker) in 2016. You see it in Republican Primaries all the time. Or in Supreme Court nomination contests - do you think the left actually would have preferred Scalia over Bork in the long run? Absolutely not!
OK. That's basically it. I've got a few other bright ideas on this one, but text me for them.
Presumably this is book one of two which covers the first half of the life of Antonin Scalia (i.e., from birth until his 98-0 confirmation to SCOTUS). Justice Scalia was an only child to Italian immigrant parents, excelled in high school and at Georgetown, and cemented his views on judicial restraint at, of all places, Harvard Law School. After graduating, spent 6 years at the well regarded law firm Jones Day, and thereafter left private practice to teach law at the University of Virginia, the University of Chicago, and briefly at Stanford. Between teaching jobs he served as general counsel for the Office of Telecommunications Policy, and then Assistant Attorney General. Justice Scalia joined the bench as judge on the US Court of Appeals for the DC circuit in 1982, where his opinions (even his dissents) drew attention and garnered respect from both sides of the political aisle. According to author James Rosen (whose politics are somewhat obvious in his writing), Herbert Wechsler’s April 19, 1959 lecture “Toward Neutral Principles of Constitutional Law” likely had a profound influence on Justice Scalia’s legal philosophy, ingraining the notion that a judge must apply neutral principles without regard for outcome, no matter how desirable. Justice Scalia was also big on respecting the separation of powers, but perhaps is best well known for his views on originalism and textualism. A fun part of this book, imo, is about the kerfuffle between homies Justice Scalia and Robert Bork in the case of Ollman v. Evans, with a cameo by then DC circuit court judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg, whose mutual affection and admiration for Justice Scalia is highlighted in the book’s ending.
Antonin Scalia is an example of how raw intellect, hard work, discipline, focused and sustained effort, ego, original thought, and scholarly elan, combined to produce a monumental associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. In “Scalia: Rise to Greatness (1936-1986), author James Rosen provides a compelling narrative of this consequential man.
I find only 2 flaws in this history. First, Rosen writes a largely uncritical analysis of Scalia. Rosen is conflicted because he is so close to his subject. That closeness enables the author to argue in favor of the massive legacy that Anthony Scalia provided to administrative and constitutional law, and it enables the author to defend Scalia against spurious attacks on his character, and his scholarship that were made by those who were less kind to Scalia’s achievements.
The second witness of this book is that it was written, as if it was a daily newspaper attempting to take credit for breaking news . The author regularly took the opportunity to notify the reader that such and such a subject had never been discussed in a Scalia biography before. I found this ingratiating and denigrating to the loftiness of the subject at hand. It made Rosen appear insecure, and that is unfortunate because Rosen is a gifted writer.
With those criticisms, however, I unashamedly and wholeheartedly recommend this book for your reading. This book was informative, well, researched, insightful, and inspiring. Scalia is a perfect example of hard work, mixed with true giftedness, and combined with opportunity, producing greatness. You will greatly enjoy this book. Happy reading!
The Supreme Court is one of the great hallmarks of our democracy in America. Many fascinating and enigmatic justices have sat on the highest bench in the land. One of the brightest and often misunderstood minds of this hallowed hall of justice is Antonin Scalia. Growing up the son of Italian immigrant parents, James Rosen traces Scalia, known as Nino to his closest friends from his early life all the way to his appointment to the high court. It traces his growing judicial acumen, his thirst for knowledge and debate, and his ascension to the goal of Supreme Court Justice.
Rosen uses newly released files, correspondence and interviews with those who knew him best to create a picture of Scalia quite different than the one that previous biographers have made. Scalia, rather than the self serving and aspirational justice that he has often been portrayed as by previous biographers has been found by Rosen to be nuanced, reasoned, and driven not by a desire to climb the next rung of the ladder, but instead by his faith and deep rooted desire to succeed wherever he finds himself.
Rosen's next book will hopefully explore Scalia on the court, and while I am loathe to judge a work before it has been published, if it is as good as this one, then the two together will form essential reading into the history of the Court, and more especially Justice Scalia.
These are my favorite kind of biographies. I began listening to this book because of the interview Albert Mohler did with the author, James Rosen, on “the briefing“. A few highlights for me:
There were three key components to Scalia‘s judicial philosophy. Separation of powers, judicial restraint, and textualism.
Several senators who participated in Scalia‘s confirmation hearing are still serving in the Senate today, including Patrick Leahy, Charles Grassley, Mitch, McConnell, and President Biden. Bidens questioning of Scalia was just as inept in 1986 as his speaking is today almost 40 years later.
Scalia had a long-standing relationship with Robert Bork, and preceded Bork to the supreme court. That was something I had overlooked, and it makes it more surprising to me that Borks nomination to the court ultimately failed when he had Scalia’s example to follow.
Scalia’s friendship with Ruth Bader Ginsburg was not for show, and it was not a product of growing soft late in life. They were friends and admirers of each other long before they were in the public eye of the supreme court.
This book concludes with Scalia, taking the oath to serve as an associate justice on the Supreme Court. I am really looking forward to volume to which will trace his work on the Supreme Court.
Thoroughly enjoyed this book about, perhaps, the greatest legal mind, of our time. James Rosen has researched his subject well with transcripts of hearings, legal matters, interviews with family, friends and colleagues, as well as the subject himself. Everything is here from Scalia's growing up in New York to an Italian father and an Irish mother, championship debater, work as an attorney, professorship and teacher, assistant Attorney General under President Ford, judge on the DC Court of Appeals, to finally 'rising up' to Supreme Court Justice. Also included are his lifelong friendships from boyhood to his later years with Judge Robert Bork and Chief Justice William Rehnquist.
Husband to his incredible wife, Maureen, and father to 9 children, I especially enjoyed the memories of his family and close friends. Scalia gives you a complete, well rounded picture of the family man, friend, colleague, son, and Justice who was the intellectual anchor for the originalist and textualist position on The Supreme Court.
It was Adam White's glowing review in Commentary that led me to this book. I'm glad it did. It's a big book, but it's written by a Newsmax journalist, so it reads fast. It covers Scalia's rise right up to the day that he (a new justice) and Rehnquist (the new chief) were sworn into their new roles together. Rosen has done much spadework and isn't afraid to let the reader know (many times a fact will be described as "previously unreported"; it's a bit odd for a book, rather than a journalistic piece, to talk like this, but I actually found it helpful).
Rosen's tone is very casual, and at times probably too casual for a biography of a Supreme Court justice--too cute by half at times (hence the missing star in my rating). And he perhaps spends too much time critiquing other biographers (not that Joan Biskupic doesn't deserve it; she deserves it all, and more). But this is a very solid, obviously sympathetic biography of a truly great man. Can't wait till volume 2.
This was an exhaustive memoir. The focus on the first Italian-American to accomplish a, b, c …was tiresome. I also doubt it played as large a role as this book attributes to it. While I do not like engaging in schadenfreude, my favorite part of the book was Scalia’s first argument before the Supreme Court where he became utterly stumped by a question. It is a stark reminder that we are all human and put our pants on one leg at a time. Or, as more eloquently put by Supreme Court justice Jackson WRT the court, “we are not final because we are infallible, but we are infallible because we are final.”
This is an in-depth account of Antonio Scalia's path to the supreme court. It was interesting - his Italian heritage, his Catholic faith, his being a husband to an Irish woman, and they had nine children. He was no doubt a brilliant man and a master at being a lawyer and college professor. He loved to debate and much of the book is about where he stood on the issues of his time (he was a conservative), and how he argued to further the causes that he thought were right. I got a little lost and bored in some of the legal goings back and forth, and decided to quit reading about two-thirds into it.
This was a pretty enjoyable listen, and we learn a few things about Justice Scalia that we may not have previously known; for example, his friendship with Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Sadly, I feel now as though I know little more about Scalia's legal vision than when I started other than he was a conservative justice who was a fairly strict constructionist. There would seem to have been so much more to his life than that.
I have a general interest in US Supreme Court Justices, including Scalia. Thus, I wanted to read a summary of Scalia's life.
Although this book does summarize Scalia's life, that not its main goal. It is a scholarly polemic. It criticizes earlier Scalia biographies, and trumpets the superior sources and emphases of the current biography. It is strongly pro-Scalia.
Perhaps lawyers and legal historians will enjoy this biographer's approach. I did not.
This is a great biography. The author is obviously a big fan, but so am I so I didn’t mind that. I think being a fan also allowed Rosen to accurately convey Scalia’s role and importance in the conservative legal movement and American law generally. But it’s very thorough and I think most would enjoy it, whether personal fans of Scalia’s jurisprudence or not. My one petty complaint is the author tries too hard too often to point out how much better his bio is than prior authors.
Stopped halfway through - a poor biography that is not even trying to be objective and is mostly focused on dull criticism of previous biographies on the same subject.