Politics & Current Events
Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill (1912-1994) is most closely associated with the truism “all politics is local.” One meaning of the observation is that politics must have a base of pragmatic neighborhood reality. It is not all theory; it is not all anticipation of demographics; it is not an imposition from above but an attention to grassroots. For years I resisted breaking out my political books to a page of their own because the topic seemed so ephemeral, so transitory. Well, what is the web but superb access to the ephemeral? I will try NOT to include too much history here or to stack the deck, so to speak, with partisan books. On the other hand, what is available is what is available — the only criteria is good writing, good sourcing, and some accordance with what my customers may be interested in. In that way, I am keeping it local, as per Speaker O’Neill. It will grow with time and a broadening definition of what is politics and what is a current event.
First: An Intimate Portrait of the First Woman Supreme Court Justice
First: An Intimate Portrait of the First Woman Supreme Court Justice
The intimate, inspiring, and authoritative biography of Sandra Day O’Connor, America’s first female Supreme Court justice, drawing on exclusive interviews and first-time access to Justice O’Connor’s archives—as seen on PBS’s American Experience
“She’s a hero for our time, and this is the biography for our time.”—Walter Isaacson
Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize • Named One of the Best Books of the Year by NPR and The Washington Post
She was born in 1930 in El Paso and grew up on a cattle ranch in Arizona. At a time when women were expected to be homemakers, she set her sights on Stanford University. When she graduated near the top of her law school class in 1952, no firm would even interview her. But Sandra Day O’Connor’s story is that of a woman who repeatedly shattered glass ceilings—doing so with a blend of grace, wisdom, humor, understatement, and cowgirl toughness.
She became the first ever female majority leader of a state senate. As a judge on the Arizona Court of Appeals, she stood up to corrupt lawyers and humanized the law. When she arrived at the United States Supreme Court, appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1981, she began a quarter-century tenure on the Court, hearing cases that ultimately shaped American law. Diagnosed with cancer at fifty-eight, and caring for a husband with Alzheimer’s, O’Connor endured every difficulty with grit and poise.
Women and men who want to be leaders and be first in their own lives—who want to learn when to walk away and when to stand their ground—will be inspired by O’Connor’s example. This is a remarkably vivid and personal portrait of a woman who loved her family, who believed in serving her country, and who, when she became the most powerful woman in America, built a bridge forward for all women.