Scalia - by James Rosen (Hardcover)

About the Book

In this "opening installment in a two-volume biography, ... historian James Rosen provides the first comprehensive account of the life of Justice Antonin Scalia, whose singular career in government--including three decades on the Supreme Court--shaped American law and society in the twenty-first century. A decade in the making, Rise to Greatness tells the story of the kid from Queens who became the first Italian American on the Court and one of the most profoundly influential figures of our time. This volume takes us from Scalia's birth to his ascension to the Court, providing a fresh and probing look at his Catholic upbringing and education; his stints in academia and published works, some of them obscure and long-overlooked; and his service in the Nixon and Ford administrations, when Scalia played a central role in reforming the U.S. intelligence community and publisher. approval of sensitive covert operations"--

Book Synopsis

The bestselling historian and journalist James Rosen provides the first comprehensive account of the brilliant and combative Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia, whose philosophy and judicial opinions defined our legal era.

With SCALIA: Rise to Greatness, 1936-1986, the opening installment in a two-volume biography, acclaimed reporter and bestselling historian James Rosen provides the first comprehensive account of the life of Justice Antonin Scalia, whose singular career in government--including three decades on the Supreme Court--shaped American law and society in the twenty-first century.

Decades in the making, Rise to Greatness tells the story of the kid from Queens who became the first Italian American on the Court and one of the most profoundly influential figures of our time. This volume takes us from Scalia's birth to his ascension to the Court, providing a fresh and probing look at his Catholic upbringing and education; his stints in academia and published works, some of them obscure and long-overlooked; and his service in the Nixon and Ford administrations, when Scalia played a central role in reforming the U.S. intelligence community and in the approval of sensitive covert operations.

Deeply researched and based on unparalleled access to documentary and personal sources, and written with an intellectual rigor and wit befitting its subject, Rosen's narrative reads like a novel while presenting startling new insight into the life, mind, career, faith, and legacy of the man whom family and friends called "Nino." The result is a compelling portrait of an American legend with whom the author personally corresponded, broke bread, drank wine, and braved the streets of the capital as a (nervous) passenger in the justice's famously speedy BMW.

Rosen has unearthed previously unpublished writing from every phase of Scalia's career, including private Supreme Court emails, and has interviewed Scalia's family, classmates, students, colleagues from the Nixon, Ford, and Reagan administrations, priests, poker buddies, hunting companions, and fellow judges and justices.

Rise to Greatness is a landmark of modern biography, a rich and moving study, accessible to lay readers, that brings to life a towering figure of American history. It is the book Scalia fans, and all citizens interested in history and the law, have long awaited.

Review Quotes

"Lively and detailed...Rosen writes with verve and passion...paints a deeply human picture...drawing on dozens of interviews and rich primary source research, much of it previously unpublished."

--Benjamin C. Waterhouse, Washington Post

"Rosen's stylish prose carries the reader...captures Scalia's brilliance and magnetism...a great read about an American hero."

--Matthew Continetti, Wall Street Journal

"Ranks among the finest biographies of a Supreme Court justice, or any judge, that I have ever read."

--Nadine Strossen, John Marshall Harlan II Professor of Law emerita and former president of the American Civil Liberties Union

"Monumental and definitive."

--Eric Metaxas, author of Bonhoeffer and host, "The Eric Metaxas Radio Show"

"Energetic...vibrant...Echoes of Scalia's wit and humor, amplified by Rosen's storytelling and ability to draw out the significance of key influences, put the reader right in the room as Scalia advances."

--Katelynn Richardson, Daily Caller

"Terrific...rollicking good fun...Rosen has set a new standard for readability and research on a justice."

--Hugh Hewitt, Salem Radio Network

"Inspiring...gives significant weight to the interplay between [Scalia's] faith and legal vocation."

--Joan Frawley Desmond, National Catholic Register

"Brilliant...poignant...spectacular...astonishingly thorough...Rosen's research is awe-inspiring....[His] key contribution is not in explaining his judicial doctrines, but in illuminating his judicial character."

--Adam J. White, Commentary

"Marvelous...lyrical...Rosen writes with a brio and crackling energy that...places the late justice's Christianity at the center...evoking that faith in a manner subtle, supple, and nimble in a way rarely achieved in biographies about famous Americans...The best kind of biographical history."

--Tim Goeglein, Daily Citizen/Focus on the Family

"What comes through in page after page of Rosen's biography was the unshakeable sense of what [Scalia] stood for."

--Judge Jeffrey Sutton, former Scalia clerk and Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, in National Review

"James Rosen's superb writing brings Nino Scalia to life...a treasure of new material...the definitive biography."

--Paul Krause, VoegelinView

"Groundbreaking...incredibly well researched...highly recommended."

--Ed Martin, "Pro America Report"

"Groundbreaking and extensively researched"

--Ira Stoll, New York Sun

"Magnificent...a perfect example of the right author meeting the perfect subject. Rosen is a veteran reporter who does meticulous research, writes beautifully, and has respect and understanding for conservative ideas....The result is a work that engages the mind and soul even as it illuminates its subject...a first-rate biography of a great man."

--Mark Judge, Washington Examiner

"Comprehensively reported and filled with stylistic flourishes of the sort its subject would have appreciated, Rise to Greatness is the definitive work on Scalia's early years."

--Ilya Shapiro, Claremont Review of Books

"An amazing work of research...riveting."

--Vince Coglianese, Daily Caller/WMAL Radio

"Really well researched, beautifully written...My father is featured prominently and I learned things about his friendship with Nino I didn't know."

--Robert Bork, Jr.

"Rich and rewarding."

--Scot Bertram, general manager and host, Radio Hillsdale

"Very fine...Rosen's research is exhaustive and meticulously documented...He has watched every video, listened to every audio recording...read every transcript...and collected lots of anecdotes."

--Ed Whelan, Antonin Scalia Chair in Constitutional Studies, Ethics and Public Policy Center, LawLiberty

"Lively...comprehensive...aided by access to much of the justice's previously unseen writings."

--The New Criterion

"Masterly...reads like a novel."

--Georgene Rice, "The Georgene Rice Show," KPDQ

"Charming...well-told...brings out Scalia's full humanity...What emerges is a wonderful family man, a loving husband and father, and a faithful Catholic."

--Austin Ruse, Catholic World Report

"Remarkable...Readers come to learn not just the origins of Scalia's originalism but how the man the world would come to know as Nino came to be."

--Lee Habeeb, Newsweek

"A monumental work...incredibly detailed."

--Ron Kessler, author, The Secrets of the FBI

"An insider account...fills in gaps left by Scalia's earlier, less ideologically admiring biographers."

--Francis P. Sempa, The American Spectator

"Rich and well rounded...As Rosen details Scalia's life and work experience, one begins to appreciate the roots of some of the justice's strongly held opinions."

--Trey Dimsdale, Acton Institute

"Lively and thorough...Rosen takes us behind the scenes...refreshing and uplifting."

--Jeff Minick, Smoky Mountain News

"Thorough research and sparkling prose...Scalia gets the biography he deserves."

--Stephen B. Presser, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, Chronicles Magazine

About the Author

James Rosen is a leading reporter, historian, and bestselling author. His work has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, theWashington Post, Politico, The Atlantic, Harper's, National Review, and the American Bar Association Journal, among other periodicals. He is the chief White House correspondent for Newsmax, following two decades of acclaimed reporting at Fox News. During the Obama administration, Rosen's exclusive reporting on national security subjects led to his being placed under surveillance by the FBI and censored by the State Department, episodes that triggered headlines, investigations, and reforms. His previous books include The Strong Man: John Mitchell and the Secrets of Watergate, hailed by the New York Times Magazine as "Pulitzer-quality biography," and Cheney One on One, a collection of transcripts from the ten-hour oral history Rosen conducted with former vice president Dick Cheney in 2014. His most recent book, A Torch Kept Lit: Great Lives of the Twentieth Century, an anthology of essays by the late William F. Buckley Jr., spent five weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. With his wife, two sons, and two cats, he splits his time between Washington and the Chesapeake Bay.