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The intimate, inspiring, and authoritative biography of Sandra Day O'Connor, America's first female Supreme Court justice, drawing on exclusive interviews and first-time access to Justice O'Connor's archives - by the New York Times bestselling author Evan Thomas."She's a hero for our time, and this is the biography for our time." - Walter Isaacson She was born in 1930 in El Paso and grew up on a cattle ranch in Arizona. At a time when women were expected to be homemakers, she set her sights on Stanford University. When she graduated near the top of her law school class in 1952, no firm would even interview her. But Sandra Day O'Connor's story is that of a woman who repeatedly shattered glass ceilings - doing so with a blend of grace, wisdom, humor, understatement, and cowgirl toughness. She became the first ever female majority leader of a state senate. As a judge on the Arizona State Court of Appeals, she stood up to corrupt lawyers and humanized the law. When she arrived at the United States Supreme Court, appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1981, she began a quarter-century tenure on the Court, hearing cases that ultimately shaped American law. Diagnosed with cancer at fifty-eight, and caring for a husband with Alzheimer's, O'Connor endured every difficulty with grit and poise. Women and men who want to be leaders and be first in their own lives - who want to learn when to walk away and when to stand their ground - will be inspired by O'Connor's example. This is a remarkably vivid and personal portrait of a woman who loved her family, who believed in serving her country, and who, when she became the most powerful woman in America, built a bridge forward for all women.



About the Author

Evan Thomas

Evan Thomas is one of the most respected historians and journalists writing today. He is the bestselling author of ten works of nonfiction: First: Sandra Day O'Connor, Being Nixon, Ike's Bluff, The War Lovers, Sea of Thunder, John Paul Jones, Robert Kennedy, The Very Best Men, The Man to See, and The Wise Men (with Walter Isaacson) . Thomas was an editor and writer at Newsweek for 24 years, where he wrote more than a hundred cover stories. Thomas has won numerous journalism awards, including a National Magazine Award in 1998. In 2005, his 50,000-word narrative of the 2004 election was honored when Newsweek won a National Magazine Award for the best single-topic issue. Thomas is a fellow of the Society of American Historians and has taught writing at Princeton and Harvard. He is a graduate of Harvard and the University of Virginia Law School. He lives with his wife and two children in Washington, DC.



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