Best Legal History Books
Here you will get Best Legal History Books For you.This is an up-to-date list of recommended books.
1. The Words That Made Us: America's Constitutional Conversation, 1760-1840
Author: by Akhil Reed Amar
Basic Books (May 4, 2021)
English
832 pages
A history of the American Constitution’s formative decades from a preeminent legal scholarWhen the US Constitution won popular approval in 1788, it was the culmination of thirty years of passionate argument over the nature of government. But ratification hardly ended the conversation.
For the next half century, ordinary Americans and statesmen alike continued to wrestle with weighty questions in the halls of government and in the pages of newspapers. Should the nation’s borders be expanded? Should America allow slavery to spread westward?
What rights should Indian nations hold? What was the proper role of the judicial branch? In The Words that Made Us, Akhil Reed Amar unites history and law in a vivid narrative of the biggest constitutional questions early Americans confronted, and he expertly assesses the answers they offered.
His account of the document’s origins and consolidation is a guide for anyone seeking to properly understand America’s Constitution today.
2. Kennedy's Avenger: Assassination, Conspiracy, and the Forgotten Trial of Jack Ruby
Author: by Dan Abrams
Hanover Square Press
English
400 pages
NOW A NATIONAL BESTSELLERNew York Times bestselling authors Dan Abrams and David Fisher bring to life the incredible story of one of America’s most publicizedand most surprisingcriminal trials in history. No crime in history had more eyewitnesses. On November 24, 1963, two days after the killing of President Kennedy, a troubled nightclub owner named Jack Ruby quietly slipped into the Dallas police station and assassinated the assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald.
Millions of Americans witnessed the killing on live television, and yet the event would lead to questions for years to come. It also would help to spark the conspiracy theories that have continued to resonate today. Under the long shadow cast by the assassination of America’s beloved president, few would remember the bizarre trial that followed three months later in Dallas, Texas.
How exactly does one defend a man who was seen pulling the trigger in front of millions? And, more important, how did Jack Ruby, who fired point-blank into Oswald live on television, die an innocent man? Featuring a colorful cast of characters, including the nation’s most flamboyant lawyer pitted against a tough-as-Texas prosecutor, award-winning authors Dan Abrams and David Fisher unveil the astonishing details behind the first major trial of the television century.
3. Licensed to Lie
Author: by Sidney Powell
Sidney Powell
English
464 pages
This true legal thriller debunks everything the media and the government told us about the Department of Justice’s destruction and prosecution of the venerable accounting firm Arthur Andersen, Merrill Lynch executives who did one business transaction with Enron, Alaska Senator Ted Steven’s, and more.
The common thread through it all is a cabal of narcissistic federal prosecutors who broke all the rules and rose to great power. Still in the news todayRobert Mueller s pitbull” Andrew Weissmann and other members of Obama’s inner circleare wreaking havoc on our Republic.
This is the book that began exposing the Deep State.
4. The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town
Author: by John Grisham
B003B02NZQ
Dell (March 9, 2010)
March 9, 2010
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER John Grisham’s first work of nonfiction: a true crime story that will terrify anyone who believes in the presumption of innocence. NOW A NETFLIX ORIGINAL DOCUMENTARY SERIES Both an American tragedy and [Grisham’s] strongest legal thriller yet, all the more gripping because it happens to be true.
Entertainment Weekly In the town of Ada, Oklahoma, Ron Williamson was going to be the next Mickey Mantle. But on his way to the Big Leagues, Ron stumbled, his dreams broken by drinking, drugs, and women. Then, on a winter night in 1982, not far from Ron’s home, a young cocktail waitress named Debra Sue Carter was savagely murdered.
The investigation led nowhere. Until, on the flimsiest evidence, it led to Ron Williamson. The washed-up small-town hero was charged, tried, and sentenced to deathin a trial littered with lying witnesses and tainted evidence that would shatter a man’s already broken life, and let a true killer go free.
Impeccably researched, grippingly told, filled with eleventh-hour drama, The Innocent Man reads like a page-turning legal thriller. It is a book no American can afford to miss. Praise for The Innocent Man Grisham has crafted a legal thriller every bit as suspenseful and fast-paced as his bestselling fiction.
5. One Vote Away: How a Single Supreme Court Seat Can Change History
Author: by Ted Cruz
English
256 pages
1684511348
WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER * USA TODAY BESTSELLER * PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY BESTSELLER * NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * AMAZON BESTSELLER * With Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s sudden passing, control of the Supreme Courtand with it the fate of the Constitutionhas become the deciding issue for many voters in the 2020 presidential election.
And the stakes could not be higher. With a simple majority on the Supreme Court, the left will have the power to curtail or even abolish the freedoms that have made our country a beacon to the world. We are one vote away from losing the Republic that the Founders handed down to us.
Our most precious constitutional rights hang by a thread. Senator Ted Cruz has spent his entire career on the front line of the war to protect our constitutional rights. And as a Supreme Court clerk, solicitor general of Texas, and private litigator, he played a key role in some of the most important legal cases of the past two decades.
In One Vote Away, you will discover how often the high court decisions that affect your life have been decided by just one vote. One vote preserves your right to speak freely, to bear arms, and to exercise your faith.
6. The Legal Analyst: A Toolkit for Thinking about the Law
Author: by Ward Farnsworth
English
326 pages
0226238350
There are two kinds of knowledge law school teaches: legal rules on the one hand, and tools for thinking about legal problems on the other. Although the tools are far more interesting and useful than the rules, they tend to be neglected in favor of other aspects of the curriculum.
In The Legal Analyst, Ward Farnsworth brings together in one place all of the most powerful of those tools for thinking about law. From classic ideas in game theory such as the Prisoner’s Dilemma and the Stag Hunt to psychological principles such as hindsight bias and framing effects, from ideas in jurisprudence such as the slippery slope to more than two dozen other such principles, Farnsworth’s guide leads readers through the fascinating world of legal thought.
Each chapter introduces a single tool and shows how it can be used to solve different types of problems. The explanations are written in clear, lively language and illustrated with a wide range of examples. The Legal Analyst is an indispensable user’s manual for law students, experienced practitioners seeking a one-stop guide to legal principles, or anyone else with an interest in the law.
7. Lincoln's Greatest Case: The River, the Bridge, and the Making of America
Author: by Brian McGinty
B00L4HAX1E
Liveright
February 9, 2015
The untold story of how one sensational trial propelled a self-taught lawyer and a future president into the national spotlight. In May of 1856, the steamboat Effie Afton barreled into a pillar of the Rock Island Bridge, unalterably changing the course of American transportation history.
Within a year, long-simmering tensions between powerful steamboat interests and burgeoning railroads exploded, and the nation’s attention, absorbed by the Dred Scott case, was riveted by a new civil trial. Dramatically reenacting the Effie Afton casefrom its unlikely inception, complete with a young Abraham Lincoln’s soaring oratory, to the controversial finalethis masterful (Christian Science Monitor) account gives us the previously untold story of how one sensational trial propelled a self-taught lawyer and a future president into the national spotlight.
8. Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America
Author: by Gilbert King
Harper Perennial
English
464 pages
Winner of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction* Nominated for a 2013 Edgar Award * Book of the Year (Non-fiction, 2012) The Boston Globe, Christian Science Monitor In 1949, Florida’s orange industry was booming, and citrus barons got rich on the backs of cheap Jim Crow labor.
To maintain order and profits, they turned to Willis V. McCall, a violent sheriff who ruled Lake County with murderous resolve. When a white seventeen-year-old Groveland girl cried rape, McCall was fast on the trail of four young blacks who dared to envision a future for themselves beyond the citrus groves.
By day’s end, the Ku Klux Klan had rolled into town, burning the homes of blacks to the ground and chasing hundreds into the swamps, hell-bent on lynching the young men who came to be known as “the Groveland Boys.” And so began the chain of events that would bring Thurgood Marshall, the man known as “Mr. Civil Rights,” and the most important American lawyer of the twentieth century, into the deadly fray.
9. The Law Book (Big Ideas)
Author: by DK
DK
English
336 pages
Why do we need laws? What rights are protected by law? When was forensic evidence first used in court? This book explores big questions like these, explaining the laws and legal precedents, and religious, political, and moral codes that have shaped the world we live in.
Written in plain English, The Law Book cuts through the legal jargon and is packed with pithy explanations of the most important milestones in legal history, with step-by-step diagrams and witty illustrations that untangle knotty concepts. From the earliest laws, such as the Code of Hammurabi, through groundbreaking legislation including Magna Carta and the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act, The Law Book offers an engaging overview of legal history across the world all the way into the 21st century with copyright in the digital age, same-sex marriage, and the “right to be forgotten”. Covering the fight for universal suffrage and workers’ rights, and the establishment of international legal bodies like INTERPOL and the European Court of Justice, The Law Book explains the stories behind each milestone development.
10. The Supremes' Greatest Hits, 2nd Revised & Updated Edition: The 44 Supreme Court Cases That Most Directly Affect Your Life
Author: by Michael G. Trachtman Esq.
Sterling
English
240 pages
Can the government seize your house to build a shopping mall? Can it determine what control you have over your own body? Can police search your cellphone? The answers to those questions come from the Supreme Court, whose rulings have shaped American life and justice and allowed Americans to retain basic freedoms such as privacy, free speech, and the right to a fair trial.
Especially relevant in light of Justice Antonin Scalia’s passing, as President Obama gears for a fight over nominating his successor, and as we prepare to elect a new president who may get to appoint other justices, the revised and updated edition of Michael G.
Trachtman’s page-turner includes ten important new cases from 2010 to 2015. In addition, a special section features analyses of the new term rulings planned for June 2016. The new cases include:Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010), which restricts the right of governments to limit campaign contributions by corporations and unions; Burwell v.
11. Gideon's Trumpet: How One Man, a Poor Prisoner, Took His Case to the Supreme Court-and Changed the Law of the United States
Author: by Anthony Lewis
Vintage (April 23, 1989)
English
288 pages
A history of the landmark case of Clarence Earl Gideon’s fight for the right to legal counsel. Notes, table of cases, index. The classic backlist bestseller. More than 800,000 sold since its first pub date of 1964.
12. 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
Author: by Gerald M. Stern
Vintage (May 6, 2008)
English
304 pages
One Saturday morning in February 1972, an impoundment dam owned by the Pittston Coal Company burst, sending a 130 million gallon, 25 foot tidal wave of water, sludge, and debris crashing into southern West Virginia’s Buffalo Creek hollow. It was one of the deadliest floods in U.S.History.
125 people were killed instantly, more than 1,000 were injured, and over 4,000 were suddenly homeless. Instead of accepting the small settlements offered by the coal company’s insurance offices, a few hundred of the survivors banded together to sue. This is the story of their triumph over incredible odds and corporate irresponsibility, as told by Gerald M.
Stern, who as a young lawyer and took on the case and won.
13. Birth of a White Nation: The Invention of White People and Its Relevance Today
Author: by Jacqueline Battalora
English
154 pages
1622127226
Birth of a White Nation is a fascinating book on race in America that begins with an exploration of the moment in time when “white people,” as a separate and distinct group of humanity, were invented through legislation and the enactment of laws.
The book provides a thorough examination of the underlying reasons as well as the ways in which “white people” were created. It also explains how the creation of this distinction divided laborers and ultimately served the interests of the elite.
The book goes on to examine how foundational law and policy in the U.S. Were used to institutionalize the practice of “white people” holding positions of power. Finally, the book demonstrates how the social construction and legal enactment of “white people” has ultimately compromised the humanity of those so labeled.
Jacqueline Battalora was born in Edinburg, Scotland and lived in Antwerp, Belgium for six years before her family relocated to Victoria, Texas. It was this experience of attending high school and middle school in Victoria that informed her understanding of race in America.
14. The Last Duel: A True Story of Crime, Scandal, and Trial by Combat in Medieval France (CROWN)
Author: by Eric Jager
Crown (September 13, 2005)
English
256 pages
SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE A taut page-turner with all the hallmarks of a good historical thriller. Orlando Sentinel The gripping true story of the duel to end all duels in medieval France as a resolute knight defends his wife’s honor against the squire she accuses of a heinous crime.
In the midst of the devastating Hundred Years’ War between France and England, Jean de Carrouges, a Norman knight fresh from combat in Scotland, returns home to yet another deadly threat. His wife, Marguerite, has accused squire Jacques Le Gris of rape.
A deadlocked court decrees a trial by combat between the two men that also leaves Marguerite’s fate in the balance. For if her husband loses the duel, she will be put to death as a false accuser. While enemy troops pillage the land, and rebellion and plague threaten the lives of all, Carrouges and Le Gris meet in full armor on a walled field in Paris.
What follows is a fierce duel, the final one sanctioned by governing powers, before a massive crowd that includes the teenage King Charles VI, during which both combatants are woundedbut only one fatally. Based on extensive research in Normandy and Paris, The Last Duel brings to life a colorful, turbulent age and three unforgettable characters caught in a fatal triangle of crime, scandal, and revenge.
15. Hitler's American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law
Author: by James Q. Whitman
Princeton University Press
English
224 pages
How American race law provided a blueprint for Nazi GermanyNazism triumphed in Germany during the high era of Jim Crow laws in the United States. Did the American regime of racial oppression in any way inspire the Nazis? The unsettling answer is yes.
In Hitler’s American Model, James Whitman presents a detailed investigation of the American impact on the notorious Nuremberg Laws, the centerpiece anti-Jewish legislation of the Nazi regime. Both American citizenship and antimiscegenation laws proved directly relevant to the two principal Nuremberg Lawsthe Citizenship Law and the Blood Law.
Contrary to those who have insisted otherwise, Whitman demonstrates that the Nazis took a real, sustained, significant, and revealing interest in American race policies. He looks at the ultimate, ugly irony that when Nazis rejected American practices, it was sometimes not because they found them too enlightened but too harsh.
Indelibly linking American race laws to the shaping of Nazi policies in Germany, Hitler’s American Model upends the understanding of America’s influence on racist practices in the wider world.
16. Justice Deferred: Race and the Supreme Court
Author: by Orville Vernon Burton
English
464 pages
0674975642
In the first comprehensive accounting of the US Supreme Court’s race-related jurisprudence, a distinguished historian and renowned civil rights lawyer scrutinize a legacy too often blighted by racial injustice. The Supreme Court is usually seen as protector of our liberties: it ended segregation, was a guarantor of fair trials, and safeguarded free speech and the vote.
But this narrative derives mostly from a short period, from the 1930s to the early 1970s. Before then, the Court spent a century largely ignoring or suppressing basic rights, while the fifty years since 1970 have witnessed a mostly accelerating retreat from racial justice.
From the Cherokee Trail of Tears to Brown v. Board of Education to the dismantling of the Voting Rights Act, historian Orville Vernon Burton and civil rights lawyer Armand Derfner shine a powerful light on the Court’s race recorda legacy at times uplifting, but more often distressing and sometimes disgraceful.
For nearly a century, the Court ensured that the nineteenth-century Reconstruction Amendments would not truly free and enfranchise African Americans. And the twenty-first century has seen a steady erosion of commitments to enforcing hard-won rights. Justice Deferred is the first book that comprehensively charts the Court’s race jurisprudence.
