Summer Reading

A frequently asked question is what summer reading will best prepare one for law school. In the best Socratic fashion, the response would be to ask what it is that one wants to read during the weeks before beginning law school. Is it law-related? Maybe it is a “beach” book or sci-fi fantasy or a thriller that calls your name. We generally suggest that the best way to prepare for law school is to arrive relaxed, focused and ready for the hard work that accompanies the study of law. Should reading a law-related book find its way onto your agenda, the list below represents some of the suggestions from the Law School faculty. As you can see, it comprises a veritable smorgasbord of options, ranging from biography to fiction, from legal theory to legal practice, and includes everything in between. Any of these books, depending on your personal tastes, interests and time, are legitimate choices. Happy reading!

 

Willajeanne F. McLean
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Law

 

YEAR OF THE BOOK

Outrageous Invasions: Celebrities' Private Lives, Media, and the Law
by Robin D. Barnes
Oxford University Press
 
Repressive Jurisprudence in the the Early American Republic: The First Amendment and the Legacy of English Law
by Phillip I. Blumberg
Cambridge University Press
 
Gods at War: Shotgun Takeovers, Government by Deal, and the Private Equity Implosion
by Steven Davidoff
Wiley Publishing
 
Cheating Welfare: Public Assistance and the Criminalization of Poverty
by Kaaryn Gustafson
New York University Press
 
America and the Law of Nations 1776-1939
by Mark W. Janis
Oxford University Press
 
Power and Legitimacy: Reconciling Europe and the Nation State
by Peter Lindseth
Oxford University Press
 
The Subprime Virus: Reckless Credit, Regulatory Failure, and Next Steps
by Kathleen Engel and Patricia A. McCoy
Oxford University Press
 
A Final Accounting: Holocaust Survivors and Swiss Banks
by Leonard Orland
Carolina Academic Press
 
Law's Imagined Republic: Popular Politics and Criminal Justice in Revolutionary America
by Steven Wilf
Cambridge University Press
 
Writing History in International Criminal Tribunals
by Richard Wilson
Cambridge University Press 

USING LAW: WHAT LAW CAN DO FOR US AND TO US

Asylum Denied: A Refugee's Struggle for Safety in America
by David Ngaruri Kenney and Philip Schrag
University of California Press, 2008
A compelling account of a refugee's escape from brutal political persecution in Africa and his legal journey through a U.S. immigration system marred by arbitrary decision-making and bureaucratic indifference.
 
The Buffalo Creek Disaster: How the Survivors of One of the Worst Disasters in Coal-Mining History Brought Suit Against the Coal Company--And Won
by Gerald M. Stern
Random House, 1976
 
The Children in Room E4: American Education on Trial
by Susan Eaton
Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2007
 
A Civil Action
by Jonathan Harr
Random House, 1995
 
Damages: One Family's Legal Struggles in the World of Medicine
by Barry Werth
Simon & Schuster, 1988
This book is about an actual medical malpractice lawsuit in Connecticut, but it reads like a gripping novel. Note: One of the attorneys in the lawsuit, Michael Koskoff, is a Law School alumnus.
 
The Day Freedom Died: The Colfax Massacre, the Supreme Court and the Betrayal of Reconstruction
by Charles Lane
Henry Holt & Company, 2008
 
Disoriented: Asian Americans, Law and the Nation State
by Robert Chang
New York University Press, 1999
 
Dispensing with the Truth: The Victims, the Drug Companies, and the Dramatic Story Behind the Battle over Fen-Phen
by Alicia Mundy
St. Martin's Press, 2001
 
Everything in Its Path
by Kai T. Erickson
Simon & Schuster, 1976
 
Gideon's Trumpet
by Anthony Lewis
Vintage Books, 1989
 
The Lost Promise of Civil Rights
by Risa Goluboff
Harvard University Press, 2007
 
The Making of Environmental Law
by Richard Lazarus
Chicago Press, 2004
This is an excellent history of modern (post 1969) environmental law making and policy thinking.
 
The Medical Malpractice Myth
by Tom Baker
University of Chicago Press, 2005
 
The New Environmental Regulation
by Daniel Fiorino
MIT Press, 2006
 
No Equal Justice: Race and Class in the American Criminal Justice System
by David Cole
The New Press, 1999
 
A Question of Intent: A Great American Battle with a Deadly Industry by David Kessler Public Affairs Books, 2001 Kessler discusses the FDA's investigation of the tobacco industry and the legal fight over whether the FDA had the statutory authority to regulate cigarettes. A great read.
 
Shades of Green
by Neil Gunningham, Robert A. Kagan and Dorothy Thornton
Stanford University Press, 2003
This is a careful study of the environmental protection efforts of 14 pulp manufacturers, both efforts aimed at complying with regulations and efforts aimed at going beyond regulations.
 
The Showdown at Gucci Gulch
by Allan Murray
Random House, 1987
This is the story of the 1986 Tax Reform Act. It provides great insight into the legislative process; it's the concept of "political economy" in narrative form, and a fun read.
 
Simple Justice
by Richard Kluger
Albert A. Knopf, Inc., 1976
One of the best histories of the long road to Brown v. Board of Education.
 
And We Are Not Saved: The Elusive Quest for Racial Justice
by Derrick Bell
Basic Books, Inc., 1987
 
Covering: The Hidden Assault on our Civil Rights
by Kenji Yoshino
Random House, 2006
 
Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth and Happiness
by Richard Tahler and Cass Sunstein
Yale University Press, 2008
 
The Race Card: How Bluffing about Bias Makes Race Relations Worse
by Richard Thompson
Ford Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2008
A semi-popular meditation on what discrimination is and isn't, and what the law can/should do about it. This is a very readable book, with examples drawn from law and popular culture.
 
Rebellious Lawyering: One Chicano's Vision of Progressive Law Practice
by Gerald Lopez
Westview Press, 1992
 
Rights of Inclusion: Law and Identity in the Life Stories of Americans with Disabilities
by David Engel and Frank Munger
University of Chicago Press, 2003
 
Sexual Harassment of Working Women: A Case of Sex Discrimination
by Catharine A. MacKinnon, Thomas I. Emerson (Introduction)
Yale University Press, 1979
 
A Failure of Capitalism: The Crisis of ’08 and the Descent into Depression
by Richard A.
Posner Harvard, 2009
A preliminary, non-technical look at possible regulatory failures which may have caused the current financial crisis.
 
Love in the Driest Season
by Neely Tucker
Three Rivers Press
A story of adoption in Zimbabwe. Heart pounding and fascinating tale of the mix of culture and bureaucracy.
 
Retaking Rationality: How Cost-Benefit Analysis Can Better Protect Our Environment and Our Health
by Revesz and Livermore
Oxford Press, 2008
 
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures
by Anne Fadiman
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1998
This book tells the story of a family of Laotian immigrants with an epileptic daughter, and the vastly different world-views and conceptions of disease and treatment held by her family and by the medical establishment. It is a book about the difficulties of cross-cultural communication, with many lessons for lawyers in a multicultural society.
 

LIVES IN LAW

 
Cardozo
by Andrew Kaufman
Harvard University Press, 1998
 
Go East, Young Man
William D. Douglas
Random House, 1974
 
John Marshall and the Heroic Age of the Supreme Court
by Kent Newmyer
Louisiana State University Press, 2001
In what has been described simply by G. Edward White, as "the best study of Marshall yet to appear and one of the finest judicial biographies in American literature" Professor of Law and History Kent Newmyer has instructed a wide readership on the philosophy and accomplishments of one of the transformative figures in American history.
 
The Judge in a Democracy
by Aharon Barak
Princeton University Press, 2006
 
The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court (2007)
by Jeffrey Toobin
Doubleday, 2007
New Yorker writer Jeffrey Toobin writes a gossipy but fascinating examination of the personalities, biographies, and dynamics between the justices of the Supreme Court, and the ways these influenced judicial decision-making.
 
Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story: Statesman of the Old Republic
by Kent Newmyer
University of North Carolina Press, 1985
 
The Supreme Court under Marshall and Taney, 2nd Edition
by Kent Newmyer
Harlan Davidson, 2006
 
Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary
by Juan Williams
Times Books, 1998
 

LAW, JUSTICE, AND POWER: LEGAL THEORY

 
The Lawyer Myth: A Defense of the American Legal Profession
by Rennard Strickland and Frank Read
Ohio University Press, 2008
A reflection by two former law deans about the world of lawyer jokes and public opinion versus the real and important work done by lawyers.
 
Bad Acts and Guilty Minds: Conundrums of the Criminal Law
by Leo Katz
University of Chicago Press, 1987
 
The Canon of American Legal Thought
by David Kennedy and William K. Fischer III (2006)
Collection of many of the core writings influencing American Legal thought, from Oliver Wendell Holmes to Robert Cover.
 
A Clearing in the Forest: Law, Life, and Mind
by Steven Winter
University of Chicago Press, 2003
 
The Common Place of Law
by Susan Silbey and Patricia Ewick
University of Chicago Press, 1998
 
Freedom’s Law: The Moral Reading of the American Constitution 
by Ronald Dworkin
Harvard University Press, 1996
 
Justice, Gender & the Family
by Susan Moller Okin
Basic Books, Inc., 1989
 
Justice in Robes 
by Ronald Dworkin
Harvard University Press, 2006
 
The Politics of Law: A Progressive Critique, 3rd Ed.
D. Kairys, ed.
Basic Books, Inc., 1998
 
Law and the Fireside Inductions
by Paul Meehl
The Journal of Social Issues, Vol. 27, no. 4 1971, 65-100
 
Lawyers and Justice: An Ethical Study
by David Luban
Princeton University Press, 1988
 
The Lost Lawyer: Failing Ideals of the Legal Profession
by Tony Kronman
Harvard University Press, 1995
 
A Matter of Interpretation: Federal Courts and the Law
by Antonin Scalia
University Center for Human Values, 1998
A probing examination of methods of Constitutional and judicial interpretation from the Supreme Court’s best known conservative Supreme Court Justice, with critical commentary by leading Constitutional scholars.
 
The Nature of the Judicial Process
by Benjamin Cardozo
Yale University Press, 1921
Nobody should graduate from law school without reading the best of the books on the craft of judging by one of the great ones.
 
The Practice of Justice: A Theory of Lawyers’ Ethics
by William Simon
Harvard University Press, 1998
 
Race and the Alchemy of Rights
by Patricia Williams
Harvard University Press, 1991
 
The Structure of Liberty: Justice and the Rule of Law
by Randy E. Barnett
Oxford University Press, 2000
 
Simple Rules for a Complex World
by Richard A. Epstein
Harvard University Press, 1995
 
Taking Rights Seriously
by Ronald Dworkin
Harvard University Press, 1977
 
A Theory of Justice
by John Rawls
Harvard University Press, 1971
 
Democracy and Distrust: A Theory of Judicial Review
John Hart Ely
Harvard University Press, 1980
 
Original meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution
Jack Rakove
Knopf, 1996
 
The Least Dangerous Branch
Alexander M. Bickel
Yale University Press, 1962
 
Pictures at an Execution: An Inquiry into the Subject of Murder
Wendy Lesser
Harvard University Press, 1993
 
Natural Law and Natural Rights
John Finnis
Oxford University Press, 1980
 
Beyond All Reason: The Radical Assault on Truth in American Law
Daniel Farber and Suzanna Sherry
Oxford University Press, 1997
 
Playing by the Rules
Frederick Schauer
Oxford University Press, 1991
 
The Concept of Law
H.L.A. Hart
Oxford University Press, 1960
 
Ages of American Law
Grant Gilmore
Yale University Press, 1977
 

LAW IN FICTION

 
A Clockwork Orange
Anthony Burgess (many editions)
 
Bleak House
Charles Dickens (many editions)
 
Crime and Punishment
Fyodor Dostoyevsky (many editions)
 
The Brothers Karamazov
Fyodor Dostoyevsky (many editions)
 
The Fall
Albert Camus
Knopf, 1956
 
The Heather Blazing
Colm Toibin
Penguin, 1995
 
The Trial
Franz Kafka
Schocken, 1965
 
A Man for All Seasons
Robert Bolt (several editions)
 
Measure for Measure
William Shakespeare (many editions)
 
The Merchant of Venice
William Shakespeare (many editions)
 
Judge on Trial
Ivan Klima
Harcourt Brace, 1991
 
A Frolic of His Own
William Gaddis
Poseidon Press, 1994
 
The Book of Daniel
E.L. Doctorow
Random House, 1971
 
In Cold Blood
Truman Capote
Random House, 1966
 
Presumed Innocent
Scott Turow
Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1987
 
A number of series of crime fiction give an entertaining and sophisticated view of law and lawyering:
 
The Matthew Hope series
Ed McBain
Holt Publishers
 
The John Marshall Tanner series
Stephen Greenleaf
Simon and Schuster
 
The Brady Coyne series
William Tapply
various publishers
 
and
 
various crime novels by Julian Symons, Michael Gilbert, Arthur Maling, and Sarah Caudwell (esp. The Shortest Way to Hades, Penguin Books)
 
 

LAW SCHOOL: MYTHS, REALITIES, METHODS

 
Making Your Case: The Art of Persuading Judges
Antonin Scalia and Bryan A. Garner
 
Framing Contract Law: An Economic Perspective
by Victor Goldberg
Harvard University Press, 2007
Looks at some famous cases, combining background research with simple economic reasoning. Written for lawyers and law students.
 
Getting to Maybe: How to Excel on Law School Exams
by Michael Fischl & Jeremy Paul
Carolina Academic Press, 1999
 
Law 101: Everything You Need to Know About the American Legal System
by Jay M. Feinman
Oxford University Press, 2006
 
Legal Education and the Reproduction of Hierarchy: A Polemic against the System
by Duncan Kennedy
New York University Press, 2004
 
One L: The Turbulent True Story of a First Year at Harvard Law School
by Scott Turow
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1977