Written over 80 years ago, but highly relevant today, THE BRAMBLE BUSH remains one of the books most frequently and strongly recommended for students to read when considering law school, just before beginning its study, or in the first semester. It began as a collection from a series of introductory lectures given by legal legend Karl Llewellyn to new law students at Columbia University. It still speaks to law, legal reasoning, class prep, and exam-taking skills in a way that makes it a classic for each new generation. The Legal Legends Edition features an extensive 2012 Introduction by Stewart Macaulay, a senior professor of law at the University of Wisconsin. He places this work into the modern classroom and explains its context and current value to law students and lawyers, as well as changes to legal education since the book first was released. Simply put, Macaulay writes, "The Bramble Bush is a book that anyone interested in law schools or law should read." Llewellyn's pointed and clear explanations of case briefing before class, visualization of cases, active learning in class, note-taking, the use of precedent, exam format, and the limits of logic have proved timeless and highly practical. They remain excellent advice for current students to consider and implement in their own journey into the law. This is no Chamber of Commerce speech of mere platitudes about law practice and the grandeur of the bar. To be sure, Llewellyn believed in law school and legal education, and in dreaming big about a life in the law. But he was-famously-a realist above all, and this book gets to the nuts and bolts of studying law successfully in traditional legal education. Whether from the enduring nature of his hands-on advice, or from the reality that the first year of law study and its classroom method just have not changed very much over many years, the book remains, by all accounts, targeted to the way 'thinking like a lawyer' continues in the modern law school. Now in a library-quality cloth edition from Quid Pro Books, THE BRAMBLE BUSH features embedded page numbers from the standard print editions-for continuity of referencing or classroom assignment. Quid Pro's hyperaccurate reproduction of the original text is unlike any other version available, even recent reprints from traditional publishers (who use poor scanning, alter text, omit parts of sentences, and misspell legal terms). Only Quid Pro editions of this classic work respect Llewellyn's book by presenting it as he wrote it, yet in a modern format and clear presentation for a new generation.

This is the first of two volumes announcing the emergence of the new legal realism as a field of study. At a time when the legal academy is turning to social science for new approaches, these volumes chart a new course for interdisciplinary research by synthesizing law on the ground, empirical research, and theory. Volume 1 lays the groundwork for this novel and comprehensive approach with an innovative mix of theoretical, historical, pedagogical, and empirical perspectives. Their empirical work covers such wide-ranging topics as the financial crisis, intellectual property battles, the legal disenfranchisement of African-American landowners, and gender and racial prejudice on law school faculties. The methodological blueprint offered here will be essential for anyone interested in the future of law-and-society.

This is the first of two volumes announcing the emergence of the new legal realism as a field of study. At a time when the legal academy is turning to social science for new approaches, these volumes chart a new course for interdisciplinary research by synthesizing law on the ground, empirical research, and theory. Volume 1 lays the groundwork for this novel and comprehensive approach with an innovative mix of theoretical, historical, pedagogical, and empirical perspectives. Their empirical work covers such wide-ranging topics as the financial crisis, intellectual property battles, the legal disenfranchisement of African-American landowners, and gender and racial prejudice on law school faculties. The methodological blueprint offered here will be essential for anyone interested in the future of law-and-society.

A classic study of the social and economic realities of trade law, told through case studies and rich historical analysis. Comparing contract cases and legislation over three discrete historical periods, Lawrence Friedman shows that social context matters, that law is more flexible and adaptive than traditional doctrinal studies would suggest, and that the framing of contract law can use a fresh reexamination in light of the historical realities he exposes.
A recognized study in law & society, this volume previously hid out as a rare book or was completely unavailable. Now readily accessible worldwide, it also features a new preface by the author as well as a new, analytical foreword by Stewart Macaulay, a senior professor of law at the University of Wisconsin.
As Macaulay notes, Friedman's "Contract Law in America" "still challenges those who research, write and teach in the field of contracts. His findings and arguments still call for a serious response today." Has contracts doctrine become "the law of leftovers"? In any event, Macaulay sums up, "Friedman combines scholarship that takes him into dusty archives with insight into the broader effect of both public culture and legal culture. I am continually and pleasantly surprised when I read him."
As with all the quality contributions to Quid Pro's "Classics of Law & Society" Series, this book features modern formatting, legible tables, and hyperaccurate proofreading from the original text. Moreover, it embeds page numbers from the first edition (in both print and digital formats), for continuity of references.
"Praise for this anniversary edition of the book abounds: "
""Contract Law in America" is one of the most important works in the entire scholarly literature on American legal history. Friedman took a subject that had been treated by researchers in exclusively doctrinal terms, bringing an entirely new perspective that revealed how contract law has been at the very center of how we need to understand 'law in action' in key periods of American development. In the methodology that Friedman applied, in the brilliance of the analysis, and in the new light his book cast on the full dimensions of governance and law in the United States, this book broke new ground. It remains today, still, required reading for any student of legal history."
- Harry N. Scheiber
Stefan A. Riesenfeld Professor of Law and History, University of California at Berkeley
"The republishing of "Contract Law in America" is a very welcome event. For years this has been one of the neglected classics of legal literature. Friedman did what the Legal Realists only dreamed of doing-he studied in depth what kinds of contracts cases state courts had decided over time, and found grand patterns in the decisions. As real-world contracts dropped out of common law litigation and into private ordering and specialized regulation, courts abandoned abstract formal rule-making for particularized equitable resolutions. In the present moment, more receptive to social and empirical studies of law than was 1965, Friedman's book should finally find the audience it deserves."
- Robert W. Gordon
Chancellor Kent Professor of Law and Legal History, Emeritus, Yale University; and
Professor of Law, Stanford University
""Contract Law in America" remains a classic examination of the relationships among legal doctrine, legal culture, and the shifting frameworks of American business enterprise. Amid the current academic re-engagement with questions of political economy, we can only hope that more historians, social scientists, and legal scholars acquaint themselves with Friedman's probing analysis of how law did, and did not, influence American commerce, and how commerce did, and did not, influence American law."
- Edward J. Balleisen
Associate Professor of History, Duke University

Written over 80 years ago, but highly relevant today, "The Bramble Bush" remains one of the books most recommended for students to read when considering law school, just before beginning its study, or early in the first semester. Its first edition began as a collection from a series of introductory lectures given by legal legend Karl Llewellyn to new law students at Columbia University. It still speaks to law, legal reasoning, and exam-taking skills in a way that makes it a classic for each new generation.

The new Quid Pro "Legal Legends" Edition includes an extensive 2012 Introduction by Stewart Macaulay, a senior law professor at the University of Wisconsin. Macaulay updates the modern reader on the book's current relevance and application, offers a practical perspective to new law students, and places the original edition in its historical context. Simply put, Macaulay writes, this "is a book that anyone interested in law schools or law should read."

Llewellyn's pointed and clear explanations of case briefing before class, visualization of case facts, active learning in class, the use of precedent, exam formats, and the limits of logic have proved timeless and highly practical. They remain excellent advice for current students to consider and implement in their own journey into the law. This is no Chamber of Commerce speech of mere platitudes about law practice and the grandeur of the bar. To be sure, Llewellyn believed in law school and legal education, and in dreaming big about a life in the law. But he was-famously-a realist above all, and this book gets to the nuts and bolts of studying law successfully in traditional legal education.

Whether from the enduring nature of his hands-on advice, or from the reality that the first year of law study and its classroom method simply have not changed very much over the years, the book remains, by all accounts, targeted to the way 'thinking like a lawyer' continues in the modern law school.

Now in a high-quality new edition from Quid Pro, "The Bramble Bush" is part of the "Legal Legends" Series. It features embedded page numbers from the previous, standard print editions-for continuity of assignments and referencing. Our production uses hyperaccurate checking against the original source-avoiding the misquotes, distracting formatting errors, and omissions common in such reissued classics, even from well-known presses. Only the Quid Pro versions offer these features (even if this description may appear under other publishers' used or new books, or customer reviews that decry the poor quality of other reprintings).

Also in the Series, look for explained and introduced new editions of such classic works as Holmes' "The Common Law" (called "The Annotated Common Law," with some 200 simple annotations to decode Holmes and the law he famously describes); Cardozo's "The Nature of the Judicial Process" (with extensive introduction by his premier biographer, Harvard Law's Andrew Kaufman); and Holmes' "The Path of the Law" and Warren & Brandeis' "The Right to Privacy" (both introduced by Steven Alan Childress of Tulane Law School).