Jeffrey Rosen

It’s amazing how timely this book is because she talks about Texas abortion rights. I love the way her perspective included men when laws were written that were sexist—as though the woman is always the caregiver, housewife and those benefits weren’t transferrable if a man was doing those same duties.
When RBG interrupted Sandra day O’Conner, which men do all the time, in USA Today it was the headline Rude Ruth interrupter. Then an academic wrote an op-ed piece saying RBG was a Jew from NYC and talks fast while O’Connor is laid back from The Golden West. People knew RBG spoke two words for her everyone.
She talks about unconscious bias which is rarely spoken of. Not sure if it is more inclusive term for racism homophobia, ageism etc.
The only negative criticism I have, relates to a repetitive quality where Jeffrey Rosen will foreshadow what the conversation with RBG will be about and then she repeats some of his words.
… (mais)

This book, Louis D. Brandeis: American Prophet by Jeffrey Rosen is a sprawling, inspiring and somewhat inaccessible and disorganized biography of a great man. I read the book because I have always wanted to know more about the preeminent Supreme Court justice and early Zionist advocate.

I do recommend the book, but it has its drawbacks. Chief among those is its verge into hagiography. The author does point out certain inconsistencies but the praise is somewhat overdone. Clearly Brandeis was a great judge as well as legal philosopher. You should determine for yourself if any man is as great as described.

Note: I was interrupted in reading this book by the loan of several books by a relative. It did not take one month to read.
… (mais)

Being a workmanlike analysis of the career of Wm. Howard Taft, using his judicial philosophy and career to explicate his presidency, fair enough since Taft was always a jurist at heart. The book is useful and informative, but unfortunately the considerable space devoted to somewhat abstruse legal musings doesn't have a great deal of readership appeal, particularly since both the political issues of the day and the legal issues which Taft wrestled with were not really formulated with twenty-first century reading interests in mind. As for the more directly political chapters, I was most interested in and learned the most from the passages explicating Taft's split with his predecessor, Theodore Roosevelt.… (mais)