Legal History

Law has played a central role in American history. From colonial times to the present, law has not just reflected the changing society in which legal decisions have been made - it has played a powerful role in shaping that society, though not always in positive ways. Eminent legal scholar G. Edward White offers a compact overview that sheds light on the impact of law on a number of key social issues. 

An incisive and comprehensive view of India’s legal process and its key issuesIndia has the second-largest legal profession in the world, but the systemic delays and chronic impediments of its judicial system inspire little confidence in the common person. In India’s Legal System, renowned...

As government offices, corporations, and campuses dismantle Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs amid intensifying political backlash, a new book from Yale University Press argues that public debate has lost sight of DEI’s origins. In The Diversity Principle: The Story of a Transformative Idea, Berkeley Law Professor David B. Oppenheimer reconstructs the two-century history of diversity as an intellectual and institutional principle, one rooted in the origins of the modern research university, the development of free speech doctrine, and the science of decision making.

Racial hatred is one of the ugliest of human emotions. And the United States not only once condoned it, it also mandated it?wove it right into the fabric of American jurisprudence. Federal and state governments legally suspended the free will of blacks for 150 years and then denied blacks equal...

Brought to you by Penguin. Four gripping stories from the Old Bailey that force us to consider: What is justice? Do our legal courts dispense it? Has our judicial process improved, for the victims, the accused and for society? And what more must be done to ensure genuine justice is carried out...

The French Constitution of 1791 has a major legacy that overturned many centuries of historical tradition but remains little known outside of France. Its powerful impact served as the inspiration for the wave of constitution-making that engulfed Europe during the nineteenth century and expanded...

Like no other work before it, Making a Career in Dictatorship dives deep into the authoritarian security apparatus to identify which officers participate in repression or coups—and above all, why. The book's compelling theory uncovers career pressure as the secret driver behind the two most...

'A vivid, visceral and crucial read for our times' BETTANY HUGHES 'Wonderful and insightful' ADRIAN GOLDSWORTHY The collapse of law and order in the last years of the Roman Republic told through the rise and fall of its most famous lawyer, Cicero. In its final decades, the Roman Republic was...

'Required reading' CATHY NEWMAN 'Inspiring and uplifting' VICTORIA DERBYSHIRE 'A rallying cry and a beacon of hope' LUCIA OSBORNE-CROWLEY If you and your family needed help, could you trust the law to be on your side? Barrister Charlotte Proudman has seen countless women let down by the very...

Landmark cases address the origins of judicial review, racial discrimination, civil rights and liberties, The 14th amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, reproductive rights, LGBTQ+ rights, and federal government regulatory powers. A recommended classroom resource. A Penguin Classic With the...

"The audiobook version includes recorded conversations between the two from the 1990s to the present, delivering a compelling informal profile. As a permanent record of Ginsburg’s voice and fighting spirit, it’s an inspiring listen." — Paste This program includes recorded conversations...

A damp, dark cellar holds two cages. And for the women behind the bars, their worst nightmares are about to come true . . . When Louise Russell goes missing from her home, D.I. Sean Corrigan from South London's Murder Investigation Unit immediately senses foul play. For Corrigan's own dark...

Historian Orville Vernon Burton and civil rights lawyer Armand Derfner shine a powerful light on the Court's race record - a legacy at times uplifting, but more often distressing and sometimes disgraceful. For nearly a century, the Court ensured that the 19th-century Reconstruction Amendments would not truly free and enfranchise African Americans. And the 21st century has seen a steady erosion of commitments to enforcing hard-won rights.

In the second thrilling novel in New York Times bestselling author Lisa Scottoline s Rosato & Associates series, a successful lawyer now finds herself on the opposite side of the bench when she s framed for murder. Benedetta Bennie Rosato is a maverick lawyer who prosecutes police...

'An indelible and enthralling work of moral witness' PATRICK RADDEN KEEFE 'These questions of memory and impunity are forever timely' FINANCIAL TIMES 'An extraordinary achievement . . . I read with open mouth and thumping heart' STEPHEN FRY The house at 38 Londres Street in Santiago, Chile, is...

How hard-working individuals have kept abortion afloat in the wake of Roe v. Wade’s destruction, and the continued help needed if we want to sustain it When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, many feared it meant the end of abortion access in the United States. Yet the...

New Deal Law and Order follows President Franklin Roosevelt, Attorney General Homer Cummings, and their war on crime coalition, which overcame the institutional and political challenges to the legitimacy of national law enforcement. Promises of law and order helped to manage tensions among key Democratic Party factions—organized labor, Black Americans, and white Southerners. Their anticrime program, featuring a strengthened criminal code, an empowered FBI, and the first federal war on marijuana, was essential to the expansion of national authority previously stymied on constitutional grounds.

Shortlisted for Columbia Journalism School’s J. Anthony Lukas Award A Publishers Lunch NonFiction Buzz Book| Named Most Anticipated by Los Angeles Times A leading authority on sheriffs investigates the impunity with which they police their communities, alongside the troubling role they play in...

An urgent and gripping look at the erosion of voting rights and its implications for democracy, told through the stories of 9 Supreme Court decisions—and the next looming case In The Court v. The Voters, law professor Joshua Douglas takes us behind the scenes of significant cases in voting...

The inside story of how one president forever altered the most powerful legal institution in the country—with consequences that endure today By the summer of 1941, in the ninth year of his presidency, Franklin Roosevelt had molded his Court. He had appointed seven of the nine justices—the...