I am a law professor specializing in women’s legal history who has long held a passion for women’s biography. As a young girl at my first school library, I was drawn to the section on girls’ biographies, color-coded orange to segregate them from the green books about boys, which I had no interest in. The more I practice and teach constitutional law, the more I am drawn to stories of how women have navigated this profession and changed the law along the way. So much of this history is unknown, making reading an adventure into new ideas and new facts that continually change the way I understand the world.
This book had a big wow factor for me, revealing the many—many—women who were considered for a US Supreme Court nomination long before the first, Sandra Day O’Connor.
The discoveries were eye-opening from the moment I first heard these two women scholars present their initial research at a conference. The authors dug deep into the archives and newspapers to recover the evidence of the multiple women considered for the Court by multiple presidents.
I enjoyed reading short biographies of each of these first ten women—so much so that the introduction of Florence Allen as the first nominee led me to further exploration that resulted in my book.
Winner, Next Generation Indie Book Awards - Women's Nonfiction Best Book of 2020, National Law Journal
The inspiring and previously untold history of the women considered-but not selected-for the US Supreme Court In 1981, Sandra Day O'Connor became the first female justice on the United States Supreme Court after centuries of male appointments, a watershed moment in the long struggle for gender equality. Yet few know about the remarkable women considered in the decades before her triumph. Shortlisted tells the overlooked stories of nine extraordinary women-a cohort large enough to seat the entire Supreme Court-who appeared on presidential lists…
I liked this book for its resurrection of a long-forgotten amendment—the one about women.
This author redeems what has been wrongly labeled an “irrelevant” amendment and reveals how the Nineteenth Amendment was challenged in its aftermath. Some women were still discriminated against on the basis of race, while the majority of states refused to extend voting rights to related political rights of public office and jury service.
Even though I teach this subject, I learned much from this impeccably researched book that details the history of women as constitution makers.
In Constitutional Orphan, Professor Paula Monopoli explores the significant role of former suffragists in the constitutional development of the Nineteenth Amendment the woman suffrage amendment ratified in 1920. She sheds new light on the connection between the suffragists as institutional actors in civil society and the emergence of a "thin" conception of the Nineteenth Amendment as a mere nondiscrimination in voting rule, rather than a robust equality norm. In this compelling legal history, Monopoli illuminates how the Nineteenth had implications for federalism, women's citizenship and the definition of equality, as well as how gender, race and class intersect to affect…
It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.
The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…
I was impressed by the unique narrative of this book that delivers exhaustive research in short chapters in a way that offers voluminous information in bite-size pieces that can be sampled over time.
I liked that the book provided a sense of the person behind the robes of this first Black woman federal judge without diminishing her accomplishments.
I learned much about Motley’s origins as a lawyer fighting in the trenches of racism that revealed her bravery and determination, narrated by an author who understands the momentum of the civil rights movement.
With the US Supreme Court confirmation of Ketanji Brown Jackson, “it makes sense to revisit the life and work of another Black woman who profoundly shaped the law: Constance Baker Motley” (CNN). The first major biography of one of our most influential judges—an activist lawyer who became the first Black woman appointed to the federal judiciary—that provides an eye-opening account of the twin struggles for gender equality and civil rights in the 20th Century.
“A must-read for anyone who dares to believe that equal justice under the law is possible and is in search of a model for how to…
In my own research, I kept coming across Dorothy Kenyon’s name, but could not find any substantial examination of the life or work of this foremother of women’s legal equality.
This book combines a story of Kenyon’s provocative life with her pivotal leadership of women’s rights and the development of equal protection law to give a full picture of the legal movement for gender equality.
Before Ruth Bader Ginsburg persuaded the Supreme Court to strike down sex discrimination, Dorothy Kenyon drew the legal blueprint.
Justice Was Her Calling is the first full-length biography of the New York judge, lawyer, and civil liberties champion whose litigation strategies helped transform the Equal Protection Clause into a powerful tool for women's rights. Across decades, from the Progressive Era through the New Deal and into the rise of second-wave feminism, Dorothy Kenyon stood at the forefront of reform.
A longtime ACLU national board member, the only woman appointed by the League of Nations to study women's legal status worldwide,…
What were America's first prisons like? How did penal reformers, prison administrators, and politicians deal with the challenges of confining human beings in long-term captivity as punishment--what they saw as a humane intervention?
The Deviant Prison centers on one early prison: Eastern State Penitentiary. Built in Philadelphia, one of the…
The narrative of this biography was one that moved this book to the top of the list for me.
The story of one of the first women lawyers of national prominence in the New Deal Administration weaves together a life and legal work, showing how one informed the other.
The award-winning book immerses the reader in the atmosphere of the era, providing personal insights alongside deep research that anchors the story to the historical record.
Through a life that spanned every decade of the twentieth century, Supreme Court advocate Bessie Margolin shaped modern American labor policy while creating a place for female lawyers in the nation's highest courts. Despite her beginnings in an orphanage and her rare position as a southern, Jewish woman pursuing a legal profession, Margolin became an important and influential Supreme Court advocate. In this comprehensive biography, Marlene Trestman reveals the forces that propelled and the obstacles that impeded Margolin's remarkable journey, illuminating the life of this trailblazing woman.
Raised in the Jewish Orphans' Home in New Orleans, Margolin received an extraordinary…
Florence Allen was the first woman judge many times over—first federal appellate court judge, first Supreme Court judge in any state, and first shortlisted for the U.S. Supreme Court. During Allen’s forty years on the bench, the country swung between progressivism and conservatism, with passage of a constitutional amendment for women’s voting rights, two world wars, the Red and Lavender Scares, and the New Deal.
Amid these changes, women used their new political standing to transform the courts. Exploring Allen’s fascinating legal life, this book recounts the larger history of how women infiltrated the legal system as judges, lawyers, jurors, and legislators to demand a more representative system of justice for the welfare of all.
Love and War in the Jewish Quarter
by
Dora Levy Mossanen,
A breathtaking journey across Iran where war and superstition, jealousy and betrayal, and passion and loyalty rage behind the impenetrable walls of mansions and the crumbling houses of the Jewish Quarter.
Against the tumultuous background of World War II, Dr. Yaran will find himself caught in the thrall of the…
