Legal, Political, & Government Books

ADAMS V. TEXAS
(The True Story Made Famous by the Documentary, The Thin Blue Line)
by Randall Adams with William Hoffer and Marilyn Mona Hoffer. Condition: NEW 1991 Thomas Dunne/St. Martin's Press hardcover & DJ (in mylar jacket), first edition, first printing. Content: In 1976 Ohioan Randall Adams, 28, who had gone to Dallas to seek work, was arrested for the murder of a police officer actually slain by 16-year-old David Harris, with whom Adams had spent part of the day. The prosecutor, Douglas Mulder, suppressed or distorted evidence and bribed witnesses; presiding over the trial was "hanging judge" Donald J. Metcalfe. Adams was convicted and sentenced to death. After 12 years in jail--described by Adams and the Hoffers ( Midnight Express ) as a barbarous experience--the prisoner was ultimately exonerated and freed, even though many Dallas judicial officials refused to accept his innocence. Adams's account of his ordeal is a scathing indictment of Texas justice. Unfortunately, however, this exceedingly depressing book lacks the dramatic pulse of Errol Morris's film about the case, The Thin Blue Line. [1 copy available]
$ 5.75 + $ 3.29 media shipping.

AMERICA'S FIRST WOMAN LAWYER: The Biography of Myra Bradwell
by Jane M. Friedman. B&W photo section. Condition: UNREAD, but not perfect, 1993 Prometheu hardcover & DJ (in mylar jacket), first printing. PROBLEM: Something was written on the loose end page and has been "blacked" out. Interior clean & tight. Content: After she applied to practice law in 1869 in her home state of Illinois and was denied, Myra Bradwell (1831-1894) instead became a legal journalist, publishing and editing the influential Chicago Legal News. In this heavily footnoted and prodigiously researched study, Wayne State University law professor Friedman posits that Bradwell's achievements have been overlooked because her disagreements with feminist Susan B. Anthony led Anthony to exclude Bradwell from her definitive History of Woman Suffrage. Using her journal as a forum, Bradwell successfully agitated for judicial reform and women's rights, particularly the right of married women to enter the professions. She and her husband James, an attorney, obtained the release of Mary Todd Lincoln, who had been committed to an insane asylum by her son. Although Friedman celebrates Bradwell's legal skill and tenacity, she also acknowledges her frequent lapses into duplicity and anti-Semitism in this objective portrait. [1 copy available]
$ 6.59 + $ 3.29 media shipping. Priority shipping available.

CHESTER'S CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate)
text by Angela Shelf Medearis. Adorable color illustrations by Anne Elizabeth Wynn. Condition: UNREAD, but not perfect, 2005 Scholastic Trade Papaerback, first printing. Inscription on half-title page. Everything else perfect. Content: This is a wonderful book informing children, in a gentle manner, all about the CASA system - the Court Appointed Special Advocate - for children in distress. Chester's Momma is not doing well. He needs to move someplace where he has someone to look after him - a home where he will be safe until Momma gets better. Karen, Chester's CASA, is one of the people who help Chester get through the difficult foster-care placement process. The Author is herself a CASA. [1 copy available]
$ 5.00 + $ 3.09 media shipping. Priority shipping by arrangement - email us.

CLARENCE DARROW ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENT (1924)
by Clarence Darrow. Intro by Justice Seymour Simon. A few B&W era photos. Condition: NEW 1991 Chicago Historical Bookworks reprint of the 1924 original edition. Trade Paperback. Content: here are two parts to this book: Part 1: Darrow's debate with Judge Alfred J. Talley and his magnificent closing argument in the Loeb-Leopold Trial. Whether you are for the death penalty or against it, this book is a must-read - especially for young trial lawyers. Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 6.49 + $ 3.09 media shipping.

COYOTE WARRIOR: One Man, Three Tribes, and The Trial That Foged a Nation
by Paul VanDevelder. . B&W photos section. Discount to Rez libraries. Condition: NEW 2003 Little Brown hardcover & DJ (in mylar jacket), first printing. Short remainder mark bottom edges at spine. Content: Raymond Cross is a Yale-educated attorney and the youngest son of Martin Cross, an American Indian tribal chairman who spent the bulk of his life fighting a losing battle against the construction of a post–WWII dam near the upper Missouri River that would forcibly remove hundreds of families from their ancestral lands. VanDevelder's exhaustively researched book uses the Cross family story—and Raymond Cross's eventual transformation into Coyote Warrior, the term given to a growing group of Ivy League–trained lawyers working on American Indian rights issues—to help trace the century-long struggle of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara tribes to protect their North Dakota homelands. The author, an investigative reporter and documentary filmmaker, provides a glimpse into the vagaries of federal Indian law and its effects that avoids preachiness, preferring to let research and recollections by the Cross family tell the story. "It doesn't take long with Indian law before you realize you're breathing a different kind of air," notes one attorney who oversaw legislation to terminate federal wardship over American Indian tribes. The book is at its most accessible when it chronicles the personal struggles of the Cross family. Appendx, Notes, Bibliography. Questions welcome. [2 copies available]
$ 7.49 + $ 3.29 media shipping. International shipping available. [Email for shipping charges on international orders.]

CLARENCE DARROW FOR THE DEFENSE
by Irving Stone. Condition: Good+ 1971 Signet paperback edition, 8th printing. Light edgewear with pale spine crease. Interior clean & tight with light tanning to page edges. Very slight roll. Content: The best biography of America's best lawyer. [1 copy available]
$ 6.59 + $ 2.94 media shipping. Priority & International shipping available.

THE DISSIDENT WORD: The Oxford Amnesty Lectures 1995
edited by Chris Miller. Condition: NEW 1995 Basic Books (HarperCollins) hardcover & DJ (in mylar jacket). Content: A reminder from Amnesty International of the power of free speech in the face of oppression--and of the fact that ``ordinary people, not just journalists, novelists, and poets . . . can be saved by international opinion.'' In this collection of addresses delivered at Oxford University, six novelists speak to aspects of political dissent.: Andre Brink, Wole Soyinka, Edmund White, Taslima Nasreen, Gore Vidal, and Nawal El Saadawi. Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 4.49 + $ 3.19 media shipping. Priority shipping available.

FROM WAR TO PEACE
by Janine Chanteur. Condition: UNREAD 1992 Westview Press Trade Paperback, first thus, first printing. Tiny edgewear. Content: Combining political theory, gender analysis, and human psychology, Chanteur explores the failures of modern political theory to come to terms with the warlike nature of the human species, and proposes that the hope for peace lies in rediscovering the failed dialogue between men and women -- the two aspects of the complete human species. [1 copy available]
$ 6.89 + $ 3.09 media shipping.

GIDEON'S TRUMPET
by Anthony Lewis. Condition: UNREAD 1966 Vintage paperback. Tag removal mark top front cover. Interior clean & tight with tanning to page edges. Content: A history of the landmark case of James Earl Gideon's fight for the right to legal counsel. Notes, table of cases, index. The classic backlist bestseller. Also a great made-for-TV 1980 movie directed by Robert Collins, starring Henry Fonda (Gideon), José Ferrer, Fay Wray, John Houseman, Sam Jaffe, Dean Jagger, Lane Smith, and Ford Rainey. [1 copy available]
$ 3.89 + $ 2.94 media shipping. Priority shipping available.

JOHN LOCKE (Political Thinkers # 8)
by Geraint Parry. Condition: Gently pre-read, if at all, 1978 George Allen & Unwin (UK) hardcover & DJ (in mylar jacket), first printing. Content: A systematic introduction to John Locke's political works and his desire to find a system wich would respect individuality and also provide order and security. Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 10.39 + $ 3.19 media shipping. Priority shipping available.

LAZARUS AND THE HURRICANE & DVD [2 for 1]
by Sam Chaiton and Terry Swinton. B&W photo section. Condition: UNREAD 1999 St. Martin's hardcover & DJ (in mylar jacket), no printing given. Content: In 1979, Lesra, a 16-year-old African American boy from an impoverished Brooklyn neighborhood, befriended three thirtysomething Canadians in the borough on business. The boy, whom the Canadians flew to Toronto to visit them, had led a life so far from the comforts of nature that he stumbled trying to walking on a lawn. Charmed by the exuberant and obviously intelligent Lesra (Lazarus), and aware that without decent health care, a safe environment, or an education he would have little or no hope of success in his dangerous neighborhood, this exceptional group of people invited him to live with and be educated by them. Lesra thrived under their watch--but the story of Lazarus and the Hurricane is only beginning. After finally being taught to read, at age 16, Lesra immerses himself in The Sixteenth Round, the autobiography of Rubin "Hurricane" Carter. The African American prizefighter was tried and convicted in 1966 for murders he didn't commit (the book's title refers to his bouts with the legal system as he tries to get himself exonerated). Lesra and his Canadian "family" pursued both a cause and a friendship with Carter that would transform all of their lives. The Canadians are active but not particularly distinct personalities in this book--a group of do-gooders who don't want too much credit. And Lesra, though he is finely described in early chapters, also falls away from the center of the story once Carter comes into view, for the Hurricane is a centrifugal force that cannot be ignored. Widely read and sensitive, but also pleasure-loving and intensely vital, Carter is the reason readers will be unable to forget this story. And they shouldn't. As Carter revives his fight with the support of his new friends and generous lawyers, working through a byzantine maze of court rulings and appeals, the shortcomings of America's legal and prison systems are made painfully clear. The compelling, bittersweet story in Lazarus and the Hurricane should be a call to action. Additional: Written by two Canadians who, despite no formal legal training, joined the legal battle to free Carter, it has the advantage of an unusual inside perspective. Imprisoned in 1967 for the slaying of two white men and a white woman the previous year, Carter had already published a memoir, become a cause celebre and inspired the Bob Dylan song "Hurricane" when Chaiton and Swinton stumbled upon his story in the late 1970s. The 1999 movie was directed by Norman Jewison and starred the great Denzel Washington, Vicellous Reon Shannon, Liev Schreiber, John Hannah, Dan Hedaya, Debbi Morgan, David Paymer, Harris Yulin, and Rod Steiger. Excellent! [2 copies available]
$ 13.49 + $ 3.29 media shipping Priority & International shipping available.

THE MAN WHO KEPT THE SECRETS: Richard Helms and the CIA
by Thomas Powers (Pulitzer Prize Winner). Condition: UNREAD 1981 Pocket paperback, first printing. Light tanning to white cover and interior page edges. Short diagonal crease bottom front cover corner. Interior clean & tight. Content: Thomas Powers penetrated the inner sanctum of the CIA. In a book that reads like spine-tingling spy fiction, he takes a close-up look at America's foremost spymaster and cold warrior, Richard Helms - a part of the CIA since its shadowy beginnings. Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 4.49 + $ 2.94 media shipping.

MY SENATOR AND ME: A Dog's-Eye View of Washington, D.C.
by Senator Edward M. Kennedy (and Splash!). Great comic color illustrations by David Mall. Condition: NEW 2006 Scholastic Press large hardcover (pictorial boards) & DJ (in mylar jacket), first printing. Content: Kennedy's introduction to the political process is clear, informative, and loaded with child appeal, in part due to the choice of narrator: his Portuguese Water Dog, Splash. This canine bundle of friendly, panting fun takes readers on a tour of monuments and then describes a typical day: staff discussion of an education bill, a ride in the underground tram between the Senate and the Capitol, a press conference, a committee meeting, and a floor vote. Children will appreciate Splash's joy at the snacks and time for outdoor catch along the way, as well as the strategic Woof when the committee reaches an impasse on the bill. While the swift and tidy resolution is clearly fictional, the actual process is rendered memorable through the presentation. Small's shifting perspectives capture the shimmering lights viewed from a moving tram, the glory of the soaring Capitol rotunda, the heartfelt affection in a beloved dog's eyes. Back matter includes information about Kennedy, Splash, and how a bill becomes a law. With its multicultural cast, nonpartisan viewpoint, and protagonist brimming with personality, this look inside the Beltway is a first choice for classrooms, tourists, and animal lovers everywhere. Grades 1 - 5. [1copy available]
$ 10.19 + $ 3.29 media shipping. .

THE MYTHOLOGY OF THE SECRET SOCIETIES
by J. M. Roberts. Condition: NEW 2008 Watkins (UK) Trade Paperback, first printing. Content: Reviewer: "Roberts has given us a valuable insight into the "spectre that haunted European politics in the 18th and early 19th centuries." This is not an history of secret societies, real and imagined. This is an history of the mythology that grew out of a belief that everything had a cause--therefore behind everything that happened in the world, there was someone causing it. John M. Roberts clearly demonstrates that much of the direction of 19th century politics was influenced, not by secret societies, but by a belief on the part of rulers in their existence and power. A fine read, well researched and footnoted. The wisdom in leaving out detailed bibiographical citations is questionable. The lack of a full index is also awkward. Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 9.00 + $ 3.19 media shipping. International shipping available.

NEW REALISM, NEW BARBARISM: Socialist Theory In the Era of Globalization
by Boris Kagarlitsky. Translated by Renfrey Clarke. Condition: Gently pre-read to about page 3 (Introduction) and abandoned. 1999 Pluto Press hardcover (no DJ issued), first printing. Interior clean & tight. Content: Neoliberalism has fundamentally altered the relationship between the global political forces. In this radical and controversial overview of the post-communist world, Boris Kagarlitsky argues that the very success of neoliberal capitalism has made traditional socialism all the more necessary and feasible.Kagarlitsky argues that leftists exaggerate the importance of the objective aspects of the new reality" globalization" and the weakening of the state, while underestimating the importance of the hegemony of neo-liberalism. As long as neoliberalism retains its ideological hegemony, despite its economic failure, the consequence is a new barbarism" already a reality in Eastern Europe, and now also emerging in the West. Kagarlitsky challenges the political neurosis of the left and prevailing assumptions of Marxism to argue that Marx's theories are now more timely than they were in the mid twentieth century. Kagarlitsky shows that radical change is urgently needed simply because the status quo cannot continue. In this context, Kagarlitsky analyzes theories of the end of the proletariat' and the end of work, and assesses the potential of the new technologies" such as the Internet" which create fresh challenges for capitalism and new arenas for struggle. Wonder how Lou Dobbs would like this book. Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 73.49 + free media shipping.

THE PROSECUTORS: Inside the Offices of the Government's Most Powerful Lawyers
by James B. Stewart (Pulitzer Prize winner for The Partners.) Condition: UNREAD 1987 Touchstone Trade Paperback, second printing. Shelfwear diagonal crease bottom front cover corner. Content: Stewart concentrates on white-collar crime in this fine survey. Included are cases involving the McDonnell Douglas Aircraft Company charged with bribing Pakistani officials; Japan's Hitachi Company and allegations of industrial espionage; Morgan Stanley and insider trading; the Bank of Nova Scotia in connection with tax-shelter fraud; and the investigation of Edwin Meese on his nomination as attorney general. Readers are made aware of the clout large corporations wield, the power of prosecutors and the instructive fact that they spend little actual time in the courtroom. There are also portraits of several prosecutors, the most memorable of them Rudolph Giuliani of New York. Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 4.89 + $ 3.09 media shipping. Priority shipping available.

ROBERT'S RULES OF ORDER, REVISED
by General Henry M. Robert; new foreword by Henry M. Robert III. Condition: UNREAD 1979 Morrow Quill Paperbacks Trade Paperback, 6th printing. "The only authorized paper edition." Tiny edgewear. Content: The classic 1915 edition revised. Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 4.59 + $ 2.89 media shipping.

ROE V. WADE: The Complete Text of the Official U.S. Supreme Court Decision
annotated by Bo Schambelan, J.D. Condition: UNREAD 1992 Running Press Trade Paperback, first printing. Tiny edgewear bottom back cover corner tip. Content: Reviewer: "This book is of doubtless value to those who, despite having never read a Supreme Court opinion, wish to dive immediately into the deep end of the pool. Intended primarily for a lay audience with a fervid interest in the controversial case, Schambelan's book is comprised mostly of text taken verbatim from the Court's own published opinion. On the upside, most of the book's content comes directly from the horse's mouth. On the downside, the Court's text hardly makes for an easy read for the uninitiated. Essentially a reference work, Roe V. Wade provides readers with abridged transcripts of the Court's decisions in both Roe v. Wade and its companion case, Doe v. Bolton, as well as all concurring and dissenting opinions, including original footnotes and citations. Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 3.59 + $ 3.09 media shipping. Priority shipping available.

SACCO-VANZETTI: The Murder and the Myth
by Robert H. Montgomery. Condition: UNREAD, but not perfect: small edgewear, binder's glue strings down spine, interior tanning. 1965 Americanist Library paperback. Content: The story of just one of the American "Trials of the Century." The arrest, trail, and execution of Sacco and Vanzetti is still a hotly disputed issue. The author knew many of the persons involved in this trial, however, it was written some 30 years later. The beginning of the great "Red" scares in American which reached it's peak with Senator McCarthy in the 1950s. [1 copy available]
$ 4.59 + $ 2.89 media shipping.

THE SPIRIT OF THE LAWS (Volumes 1 & 2)
by Baron de Montesquieu. Translated by Thomas Nugent. Foreword by Franz Neumann. Condition: Most likely gently pre-read 1965 Hafner Publishing Trade Paperback, 4th printing. Light tanning to page edges. Pale hinge crease with binder's glue string down spine. Content: The Spirit of the Laws is without question one of the central texts in the history of eighteenth-century thought, yet there has been no complete scholarly English language edition since 1750. This lucid translation renders Montesquieu's problematic text newly accessible to a fresh generation of students, helping them to understand why Montesquieu was such an important figure in the early enlightenment and why The Spirit of the Laws was such an influence on those who framed the American Constitution. Questions welcome. [1 copy available]
$ 17.25 + $ 3.59 media shipping.