The Lives of the Constitution: Ten Exceptional Minds that Shaped Americas Supreme Law

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In a fascinating blend of biography and history, Joseph Tartakovsky tells the epic and unexpected story of our Constitution through the eyes of ten extraordinary individualssome renowned, like Alexander Hamilton and Woodrow Wilson, and some forgotten, like James Wilson and Ida B. Wells-Barnett.
Tartakovsky brings to life their struggles over our supreme law from its origins in revolutionary America to the era of Obama and Trump. Sweeping from settings as diverse as Gold Rush California to the halls of Congress, and crowded with a vivid Dickensian cast, Tartakovsky shows how America's unique constitutional culture grapples with questions like democracy, racial and sexual equality, free speech, economic liberty, and the role of government.
Joining the ranks of other great American storytellers, Tartakovsky chronicles how Daniel Webster sought to avert the Civil War; how Alexis de Tocqueville misunderstood America; how Robert Jackson balanced liberty and order in the battle against Nazism and Communism; and how Antonin Scalia died warning Americans about the ever-growing reach of the Supreme Court.
From the 1787 Philadelphia Convention to the clash over gay marriage, this is a grand tour through two centuries of constitutional history as never told before, and an education in the principles that sustain America in the most astonishing experiment in government ever undertaken.

Reviews

Part history, part biography, and part legal analysis, The Lives of the Constitution is a unique account of how the American Constitution over two centuries has both changed and yet remained the same. Tartakovsky combines his pragmatic expertise as Nevada's Deputy Solicitor General with insightful legal scholarship to show how traditional categories like strict constructionist or progressive do not always reflect the unexpected ways in which the Constitution has both enriched America in times of evolutionary change and yet saved America from radical transformation. A wholly original approach and analysis.
Victor Davis Hanson, Senior Fellow, Classics and Military History, the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, author of The Second World Wars

The Lives of the Constitution is as supple, smart, and opinionated as the ten men and women it depicts. Joseph Tartakovsky will surprise and instruct you on every page.
Richard Brookhiser, author of Alexander Hamilton, American

Joseph Tartakovsky brings that rarest of combinations: a writer who has studied the law in a demanding way, but also seen the law through the prism of moral and political philosophy--and then writes in the most graceful and illuminating manner.
Hadley Arkes, Senior Fellow at The Claremont Institute

Avoiding legal jargon and sketching vivid, memorable portraits of his subjects, the author offers a scholarly yet accessible book to general audiences. Verdict: A thoughtful, clever work on how different generations have thought about the Constitution. Well worth the time of American history and law students.
Michael Eshleman, Library Journal, starred review

[A] fascinating and lively way to recast the nations founding document.... [Tartakovsky] introduces a novel twist: The proper way to understand the Constitution is not simply to engage in historical exegesis or textual commentary, but to view it primarily as a story of human beings. [He] is well served by his ability to communicate important points with an enviable brevity. [I]t is a credit to Tartakovsky that he has reminded us of the vitality of our founding document in such a novel and unassuming way.
Jay Cost, National Review magazine

The striking thing about Tartakovsky's book is its unflagging combination of deep Constitutional and historical wisdom, beautiful and elegant writing, occasional and appropriate lyricism, and the quality of easily leading the reader forward with the greatest enjoyment. His extraordinary talent is such that as a story teller he could take the baton from David McCullough or, as a jurist (if a future president has enough wisdom to appoint him to the Supreme Court), Antonin Scalia. Yes, he is that good.
Mark Helprin, author of Winter's Tale, A Soldier of the Great War, and most recently Paris in the Present Tense

Author Bio

Joseph Tartakovsky is the former Deputy Solicitor General of Nevada and a practicing attorney in constitutional and appellate law at an international law firm. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Los Angeles Times. He is also the James Wilson Fellow in Constitutional Law at the Claremont Institute and served as a law clerk on the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.