Summary of Joan Biskupic's The Chief

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 John Roberts, the future Chief Justice of the United States, had a clear plan for his life at age 13. He wanted to attend an elite boarding school in Indiana. The school had been created by wealthy businessmen who wanted an academy in the tradition of the elite boarding schools of the East Coast but with a lay Roman Catholic character.

#2 The first draft lottery was held on July 11, 1863, at a provost marshal’s office on New York City’s East Side. Mobs roamed the city, setting fires to the homes of black families and white abolitionists.

#3 In May 1889, an unprecedented rainstorm soaked the valley, breaking an earthen dam that had been built fourteen miles upstream of the city. The dam had created a lake for an exclusive sports club frequented by the region’s wealthy industrialists. When it broke, Johnstown was crushed by a wall of water with a force as powerful as the Mississippi River.

#4 Jack and Rosemary Roberts’s first child, Kathy, was born in October 1953. They had a son in January 1955. Rosemary was more ambitious than her husband, and she pushed him to advance at Bethlehem Steel. She was excited about her son’s academic achievements.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: May 17, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822518803

IRB Media

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Insights on Joan Biskupic's The Chief

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 9

Insights from Chapter 10

Insights from Chapter 11

Insights from Chapter 12

Insights from Chapter 13

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

John Roberts, the future Chief Justice of the United States, had a clear plan for his life at age 13. He wanted to attend an elite boarding school in Indiana. The school had been created by wealthy businessmen who wanted an academy in the tradition of the elite boarding schools of the East Coast but with a lay Roman Catholic character.

#2

The first draft lottery was held on July 11, 1863, at a provost marshal’s office on New York City’s East Side. Mobs roamed the city, setting fires to the homes of black families and white abolitionists.

#3

In May 1889, an unprecedented rainstorm soaked the valley, breaking an earthen dam that had been built fourteen miles upstream of the city. The dam had created a lake for an exclusive sports club frequented by the region’s wealthy industrialists. When it broke, Johnstown was crushed by a wall of water with a force as powerful as the Mississippi River.

#4

Jack and Rosemary Roberts’s first child, Kathy, was born in October 1953. They had a son in January 1955. Rosemary was more ambitious than her husband, and she pushed him to advance at Bethlehem Steel. She was excited about her son’s academic achievements.

#5

While the Roberts family enjoyed the economic boom, large portions of the country continued to suffer under discriminatory laws and practices.

#6

The North was also affected by racial tensions, particularly in cities like Chicago, which was not far from the Indiana home where Roberts spent his youth. Richard Nixon was elected president in November 1968.

#7

The Roberts family fortunes tracked those of the steel industry. After World War II, steel consumption rose, and Bethlehem Steel emerged as one of the largest industrial companies in the world. The Lackawanna plant produced the cold-rolled steel sheets used in manufacturing automobiles, building exteriors, and appliances.

#8

The Roberts family moved to Long Beach, an idyllic setting twenty miles north of the Burns Harbor plant. The town was overwhelmingly Roman Catholic, and the children were sent off to Notre Dame Catholic elementary school every morning.

#9

The Roberts family moved to Long Beach, a suburb of Los Angeles, when John was a young boy. He was a model student who thrived in the stricter environment of La Lumiere School. He wrote an editorial in the school newspaper objecting to any change to the boys-only admissions policy.

#10

Roberts was a hard worker, and he had the most success with wrestling. He was also a skilled football player, and co-captain of the