Scorpions: The Battles and Triumphs of Fdr's Great Supreme Court Justices (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780446699280)

A tiny, ebullient Jew who started as America's leading liberal and ended as its most famous judicial conservative. A Klansman who became an absolutist advocate of free speech and civil rights. A backcountry lawyer who started off trying cases about cows and went on to conduct the most important international trial ever. A self-invented, tall-tale Westerner who narrowly missed the presidency but expanded individual freedom beyond what anyone before had dreamed.

Four more different men could hardly be imagined. Yet they had certain things in common. Each was a self-made man who came from humble beginnings on the edge of poverty. Each had driving ambition and a will to succeed. Each was, in his own way, a genius.

They began as close allies and friends of FDR, but the quest to shape a new Constitution led them to competition and sometimes outright warfare. Scorpians tells the story of these four great justices: their relationship with Roosevelt, with each other, and with the turbulent world of the Great Depression, World War II, and the Cold War. It also serves as a history of the modern Constitution itself.

Author: Noah Feldman
ISBN-10: 0446699284
ISBN-13: 9780446699280
Publisher: Twelve
Language: English
Published: 10/03/2011
Pages: 528
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.30lbs
Size: 7.90h x 5.10w x 1.40d

Review Citation(s):
New York Times Book Review 10/23/2011 pg. 32