If you're looking for a suitable gift for a loved one on MLK Day, I suggest this hot-off-the-presses new book, Martin Luther King Jr. and the Morality of Legal Practice: Lessons in Love and Justice. Here's the blurb:
This book seeks to reframe our understanding of the lawyer's work by exploring how Martin Luther King Jr. built his advocacy on a coherent set of moral claims regarding the demands of love and justice in light of human nature. King never shirked from staking out challenging claims of moral truth, even while remaining open to working with those who rejected those truths. His example should inspire the legal profession as a reminder that truth-telling, even in a society that often appears morally balkanized, has the capacity to move hearts and minds. At the same time, his example should give the profession pause, for King's success would have been impossible absent his substantive views about human nature and the ends of justice. This book is an effort to reframe our conception of morality's relevance to professionalism through the lens provided by the public and prophetic advocacy of Dr. King.
I would love to read this book--but $99 for the print edition, or $79 for the Kindle? I understand you have no control over the price, and I appreciate the prestige associated with Cambridge University Press, but this price really makes the book inaccessible to most readers. It's unfortunate that a book on the ethical views of Dr. King, who spoke so much of economic justice, falls into the trap of the elitist pursuit of legal scholarly prestige.
Posted by: Jgmilles | January 21, 2013 at 11:30 AM