Overview

NATIONAL BESTSELLER “A vivid account of a remarkable life.” —The Washington Post In this comprehensive, revelatory biography—fifteen years of interviews and research in the making—historian Jane Sherron De Hart explores the central experiences that crucially shaped Ginsburg’s passion for justice, her advocacy for gender equality, and her meticulous jurisprudence. At the heart of her story and abiding beliefs is her Jewish background, specifically the concept of tikkun olam, the Hebrew injunction to “repair the world,” with its profound meaning for a young girl who grew up during the Holocaust and World War II. Ruth’s journey begins with her mother, who died tragically young but whose intellect inspired her daughter’s feminism. It stretches from Ruth’s days as a baton twirler at Brooklyn’s James Madison High School to Cornell University to Harvard and Columbia Law Schools; to becoming one of the first female law professors in the country and having to fight for equal pay and hide her second pregnancy to avoid losing her job; to becoming the director of the ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project and arguing momentous anti-sex discrimination cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. All this, even before being nominated in 1993 to become the second woman on the Court, where her crucial decisions and dissents are still making history. Intimately, personably told, this biography offers unprecedented insight into a pioneering life and legal career whose profound mark on American jurisprudence, American society, and our American character and spirit will reverberate deep into the twenty-first century and beyond. REVISED AND UPDATED WITH A NEW AFTERWORD

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9781984897831

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Reviews

The critics welcome Jane Sherron De Hart's RUTH BADER GINSBURG An excellent biography ... in its comprehensiveness, range, and attention to detail, this is a vivid account of a remarkable life. --Jeffrey Rosen, The Washington Post The first full biography of Ginsburg ... passionate and thorough ... a major event in scholarship on American law. --Michael O'Donnell, Washington Monthly Magisterial and timely ... engaging ... written in clear language and grounded in historical context. --Julia M. Klein, Forward De Hart succeeds in showing us that the 107th person to be appointed to the Supreme Court is much more than a pop culture icon ... Compelling. --Jonathan Kirsch, Jewish Journal Engaging and admiring. --Bryan A. Garner, Wall Street Journal Scholarly, yet accessible ... rewarding and compelling. --Joel K. Goldstein, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette An in-depth biography of the Supreme Court justice who has become a pop-culture icon. --USA Today Meticulously researched, comprehensive ... Ginsburg's career is skillfully placed within the context of American social and political history ... a sophisticated analysis of the justice's thinking on constitutional change, reproductive rights, gender equality, and affirmative action. --Marie M. Mullaney, Library Journal De Hart reminds us in her new scholarly biography: Ginsburg is a true-blue legal icon ... [the book] draws on extensive research ... readable and rewarding. --Michelle Olsen, NPR RBG has lived a helluva life, and everything--from her days as a baton twirler in Brooklyn to her eventual ascension to the highest court in the land--is chronicled in this expansive history. --Cristina Arreola, Bustle De Hart dynamically devotes more than 500 pages to the amazing life of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg ... Telling anecdotes skillfully illuminate Ginsburg's devotion to her family and her wonderfully supportive late husband, her long-standing friendships with an array of public figures, her love of opera, and her humorous wit. This extensively documented account, incorporating more than 100 pages of chapter notes and a bibliography that cites hundreds of resources, is also quite engaging and very easy to read. Expect high demand. --Kathleen McBroom, Booklist (starred review) Laudatory ... De Hart's great strength is her ability to explain Ginsburg's cases and the legal strategies she employed ... an insightful, fascinating, and admiring biography of one of America's most extraordinary jurists. --Publishers Weekly The first comprehensive biography of Ruth Bader Ginsburg . . . De Hart describes in absorbing detail the behind-the-scenes campaign to obtain her appointment to the Supreme Court engineered by her devoted husband Martin Ginsburg . . . De Hart excels in explaining the majority opinions, and later the dissents, in which she participated with remarkable clarity, illuminating the issues, the competing positions, and the significance of each in language easily grasped by readers with no legal training . . . A monumental biography. --Kirkus (starred review)

Readable and rewarding. . . . Ginsburg is a true-blue legal icon. --NPR Engaging and admiring. --The Wall Street Journal In a revealing new biography, 15 years in the making, Jane Sherron De Hart helps untangle the mystery of the decorous Ginsburg as feminist gladiator. --The Atlantic An in-depth biography of the Supreme Court justice who has become a pop-culture icon. --USA Today De Hart's thorough biography relates this life story with a nice sense of the sweep of feminist and legal history that is contained within it. --Minneapolis Star Tribune Monumental. . . . The first comprehensive biography of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. . . . De Hart excels in explaining the majority opinions, and later the dissents, in which she participated with remarkable clarity, illuminating the issues, the competing positions, and the significance of each in language easily grasped by readers with no legal training. --Kirkus Reviews (starred review) De Hart's great strength is her ability to explain Ginsburg's cases and the legal strategies she employed. . . . An insightful, fascinating, and admiring biography of one of America's most extraordinary jurists. --Publishers Weekly Meticulously researched. . . . Ginsburg's career is skillfully placed within the context of American social and political history. --Library Journal Passionate and thorough. . . . A major event in scholarship on American law. --Washington Monthly Scholarly, yet accessible. . . . Rewarding and compelling. --Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Magisterial and timely. . . . Written in clear language and grounded in historical context. --The Forward Compelling. . . . De Hart succeeds in showing us that the 107th person to be appointed to the Supreme Court is much more than a pop culture icon. --Jewish Journal A masterful biography that adds depth and insight to Ginsburg's only-in-America life story. --Washington Independent Review of Books De Hart displays an impressive grasp of each area of Ginsburg's legal influence, from women's rights to voting rights to gay rights to immigrant rights, with a particular focus on striking down laws that discriminated on the basis of gender. --Newsweek A rigorous, comprehensive, deftly written biography. --The National Book Review De Hart dynamically devotes more than 500 pages to the amazing life of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. . . . This extensively documented account. . .is also quite engaging and very easy to read. --Booklist (starred review)

Author Information

Jane Sherron De Hart is professor emerita of history at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She lives in Santa Barbara, California.

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