Book List for New Law Professors

What books would you recommend to new law professors? Perhaps we can create a list in the comments.

Here is the thing. If you are a new professor, you will have no trouble packing your bookshelves with books. Free review copies of casebooks from the big publishers can fill up your office in no time. But what should you be filling your bookshelves with?

As a relatively newish prof (in my third year of full-time teaching), I've found a few books to suggest for the list. I suppose some people may have suggestions for books about teaching. I'm curious to hear those. But my suggestions, below, are substantive. These are the books I should have bought the first day I decided I would become an academic. They are resources for the beginning scholar looking to load up on the sort of law-professory knowledge that's good to have no matter what your subject you teach.

A History of American Law by Lawrence M. Friedman. This book is eminently readable, and it is broken down into highly digestible little sections. Each section is a brief treatment of a certain subject over a certain period of history. Care to spend a few minutes learning about divorce law in the 1800s? Friedman has you covered. His book is a ready reference with a wealth of historical context for almost any course you could teach. 

The Transformation of American Law 1780-1860 and The Transformation of American Law 1870-1960 by Morton J. Horwitz. This two-volume treatment of the story of American law is not easy-breezy reading like Friedman's book. But it is rewarding. In some places, I have found almost every sentence to be highly illuminating in its own right. Wonderful stuff. 

The Canon of American Legal Thought, edited by David Kennedy and William W. Fisher III.

Law school is famously said to be about teaching law students to think like lawyers. This is the book for the course that teaches law students to think like legal scholars. It is a compilation of canonical law review articles – sort of the greatest hits in legal scholarship. Here you can read seminal works in legal realism, law and economics, critical legal studies, and more.

The Anglo-American Legal Heritage by Daniel R. Coquillette. Taking on an enormous swath of history, this book traces the roots of American law much farther back than the books listed above. It covers a little of Rome and a lot of Old England, and it brings all of it up to the present. It is also chock full of wonderful illustrations. I've never met anyone who had so much history instantly at his command as Coquillette. What he's put down on paper here is a treasure. Also distinguishing this book from those listed above is its binding. In hardback with gold lettering on a regal red spine, it will look great in your office.

I am reading all of the above books in bits and pieces -- which is how I like to tackle books of this sort. Thus, I can't say I've read them cover to cover. But I can say I am tremendously glad to have found them to get lost in occasionally. For the new law professor, I can confidently pronounce them to be value-packed bargains. 

What else should be on the list?

(And if you like reading lists, see the many PrawfsBlawg posts under the category of Research Canons.)