In this book, editors Jarvis, Baker, and McClurg have selected 25 of the funniest law review articles from the past 50 years and arranged them in five categories: law students, law professors, lawyers, judges, and legal scholarship. Also included is a comprehensive bibliography, which is an invaluable research tool. The book's jacket features an original cartoon by the noted artist Alan Gerson. "The compilers . . . have put together a book full of witty articles that make good-natured fun of the legal world. . . . At a mere $25, it is an economical choice for a quality addition to any library's humor collection." -- The Law Library Journal "This book would be a nice addition to a law library in order to show a face of legal scholarship not frequently represented in library collections. Moreover, it would make a nice gift for oneself, a colleague, or a friend studying in law school for those moments when a dose of humor might lessen the pressures of attending to more serious legal matters." -- New York Law Journal "[Y]ou will doubtless enjoy taking a break from your labors by perusing this collection of 25 amusing law review articles." -- The Law Teacher "Definitely a good read." -- The National Jurist "A very funny romp through legal life." -- The National Law Journal "[S]plendid examples of the seriously underdeveloped genre of law review humor writing." -- Legal Times "A collect[ion] of rare gems." -- The Green Bag "This book will make a good addition to law school collections, and a very nice gift for the lawyers in our lives who need a good laugh or humor lessons." -- Bimonthly Review of Law Books

Although academics have never lacked for critics, publications on the profession tend to be either popularized polemics, which are engaging but misleading, or scholarly analyses, which are intellectually responsible but of little interest to anyone but specialists. In Pursuit of Knowledge offers an alternative: a unique portrait of academic life that should appeal to both experts and a general audience. Drawing on a wide range of disciplines, including higher education, history, law, sociology, economics, and literature, the book focuses on the ways in which the pursuit of status has undermined the pursuit of knowledge. Deborah Rhode argues that both individual scholars and institutions in higher education are caught in an arms race of reputation. The result has been to skew priorities in scholarship, erode commitments to teaching, compromise efforts of public intellectuals, and impede effectiveness in administration. The book offers several solutions to counter these pervasive problems in our research institutions. Rhode makes a case for increasing accountability and realigning reward systems. She argues that what is needed is a greater sense of responsibility among universities and their faculties to narrow the gap between academic ideals and practices. In Pursuit of Knowledge is meticulously researched and elegantly written. It is also exceptionally entertaining in its use of quotations culled from over a hundred academic novels, including works by Kingsley Amis, Saul Bellow, David Lodge, and C.P. Snow.(For example, from P.G. Wodehouse's The Girl in Blue, "The Agee womantold us for three quarters of an hourhow she came to write her beastly book, when a simple apology was all that was required.") The result is a highly readable but also deeply reflective analysis of the academic profession.

Since the 1987 appearance of A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage, Bryan A. Garner has proved to be a versatile and prolific writer on legal-linguistic subjects. This collection of his essays shows both profound scholarship and sharp wit. The essays cover subjects as wide-ranging as learning to write, style, persuasion, contractual and legislative drafting, grammar, lexicography, writing in law school, writing in law practice, judicial writing, and all the literature relating to these diverse subjects.