Justice Thomas outlines quite frankly in this book his views on government's place in addressing the issues of racial equality which led him to break ranks with members of his family and influential leaders in the African American community and the Democratic Party. Breaking ranks led him to join the Republican Party during the Reagan years. I was impressed with Mr. Thomas's clearly considering the choices he made during his pre-bench life. Few of them were easy choices. In the end, his choices led him back to the strong values and ethics instilled in him by his grandparents who raised him, even though he felt for some time like he was going the opposite direction.
Almost 25% of the book is devoted to the Senate confirmation hearings which we all remember vividly. It was hard for me to decide if this was just for the author to tell his side of the story, or if he devoted so much of the volume of the book to this incident because of it's affect on him moving forward from it. I was looking for something in the book that told me something of who Clarence Thomas is as a Supreme Court Justice. I found that something on page 204 where Justice Thomas related advice he's recieved on the D.C. Circuit from Judge Larry Silberman, which he says became his central approach to judging: "What is my role in this case -- as a judge."