Secret Lives of the Supreme Court [Paperback]

Robert Schnackenberg (Author), Eugene Smith (Illustrator)

Book Description

Series: Secret Lives | Publication Date: March 1, 2009

Drugs, Adultery, Bribery, Homosexuality, corruption—and the Supreme Court?!?
 
Your high school history teachers never gave you a book like this one! Secret Lives of the Supreme Court features outrageous and uncensored profiles of America’s most legendary justices—complete with hundreds of little-known, politically incorrect, and downright wacko facts. You’ll discover that:
 
    •  Hugo Black was a member of the Ku Klux Klan.
    •  Benjamin Cardozo likely died a virgin.
    •  John Rutledge attempted suicide by jumping off a bridge.
    •  John Marshall Harlan organized regular screenings of X-rated films.
    •  Thurgood Marshall never missed an episode of Days of Our Lives.
    •  Sandra Day O’Connor established the court’s first Jazzercise class.
    •  And much, much more!
 
With chapters on everyone from John Jay to Samuel Alito, Secret Lives of the Supreme Court tackles all the tough questions that other history books are afraid to ask: How many of these judges took bribes? How many were gay? And how could so many sink into dementia while serving on the highest court in the land? American history was never this much fun in school!
 

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Robert Schnakenberg is the author of several nonfiction books, including Secret Lives of Great Authors and Distory: A Treasury of Historical Insults. He lives in Brooklyn.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Quirk Books (March 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594743088
• ISBN-13: 978-1594743085
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.8 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,062,634 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Robert Schnakenberg has been called "the Howard Zinn of nerd pop culture." He is the author of more than a dozen books, including Distory: A Treasury of Historical Insults, Christopher Walken A-to-Z, Secret Lives of Great Authors, and The Encyclopedia Shatnerica--the world's first A-to-Z guide to the life and career of William Shatner. His work has appeared in Penthouse, The American Writer, and Real People; and online at Alternet, HoleCity, Mental Floss, and PopPolitics.com. He has been a major contributor to numerous multi-volume reference works, including The St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture; Fashion, Fad, and Style; and Bowling, Beatniks, and Bell Bottoms: Pop Culture of 20th Century America.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars split personality, February 4, 2010

By 

C. P. Anderson (Charlotte, NC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Secret Lives of the Supreme Court: What Your Teachers Never Told You About America's Legendary Justices (Paperback)

In general, I love books like this. They typically take obscure figures from history and make them human. Some others in this genre I've liked include Veeps: Profiles in Insignificance and Signing Their Lives Away: The Fame and Misfortune of the Men Who Signed the Declaration of Independence.

I can't include this book among those unfortunately. It starts off surprisingly negative and snarky. Here are some examples:

- A crabby, slave-owning, anti-Catholic bigot [John Jay]
- A crook and a tool of the rich [James Wilson]
- [Trying to rehabilitate Roger Taney is] a bit like saying that apart from the Holocaust, Hitler was a swell guy
- An abrasive boor and virulent anti-Semite without an ounce of common decency [James Clark McReynolds]
- A blustering, imperious phony [Warren Burger]
- A physical oddity more suited for a Victorian-era specimen box [Ruth Bader Ginsburg]

Along those lines are the topics he deems fit to discuss. For example, Schnakenberg has a little blurb about Olive Wendell Holmes' purported impotency. Though he speculates that it resulted from being wounded in battle, that doesn't stop him from playing it up in a nudge-nudge, wink-wink style that seems positively embarrassing (to Schnakenberg):

Shooting Blanks

The "Yankee from Olympus" was no love god ... Holmes had a strictly platonic relationship with his wife, Fanny Dixwell Holmes. (Insert your salacious pun here.) ... problems "down below." ... Whether his flag was flying or not ...

At about Lewis Powell, however, he begins to lighten up, and the rest of the little bios are interesting and not very snarky at all. Not sure if he simply couldn't keep up the snarky pace, has a hard time considering historical context, didn't want to piss off living human beings, or what. Strange.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Borrow It...Don't Buy It, November 17, 2011

By 

Samantha L. Sayre (WV United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Secret Lives of the Supreme Court: What Your Teachers Never Told You About America's Legendary Justices (Paperback)

As others have said the binding on the book leaves a lot to be desired. It's not a book that I would buy for the list price of $17.99. However if you can get it from the library or as a bargain book then it's worth it. It starts off by reviewing the noted Supreme Court justices from the past and ends with the current members of the Supreme Court. It gives facts from their lives and cases they are known for. Then it gives short blurbs about them like they may have been gay or anti-semite or a bigot. It gives you the facts to back it up. It truly isn't what you learned in schoool. However it does keep your interest. I would recommend this book to anyone that's a history buff of little known facts or anyone interested in the court.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Little known secrets, April 6, 2011

By 

Cheeke' Tigre' (Tampa, Florida) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Secret Lives of the Supreme Court (Paperback)

Few realize that only nine people have such an enormous effect on the lives of all Americans ... quirky, suprisingly human, yet somewhat mystical in their operation ... a good study in civics, politics, and human nature...