Works by
Alan Dershowitz
(aka Alan M. Dershowitz)
(Writer)

• The Best Defense (1982)

• Reversal of Fortune: Inside the Von Bulow Case (1986)
  Movie (1990) DVD VHS, Directed by Barbet Schroeder; with Glenn Close and Jeremy Irons

• Taking Liberties: A Decade of Hard Cases, Bad Laws, and Bum Raps (1988)

• Chutzpah (1991)

• Contrary to Popular Opinion (1992)

• The Abuse Excuse: And Other Cop-Outs, Sob Stories, and Evasions of Responsibility (1994)

• Reasonable Doubts: The Criminal Justice System and the O.J. Simpson Case (1996)

• The Vanishing American Jew: In Search of Jewish Identity for the Next Century (1997)

• Sexual McCarthyism: Clinton, Starr, and the Emerging Constitutional Crisis (1998)

• The Genesis of Justice: Ten Stories of Biblical Injustice that Led to the Ten Commandments and Modern Law (2000)

• Letters to a Young Lawyer (2001)

• Supreme Injustice: How the High Court Hijacked Election 2000 (2001)

• Shouting Fire: Civil Liberties in a Turbulent Age (2002)

• Why Terrorism Works: Understanding the Threat, Responding to the Challenge (2002
  The greatest danger facing the world today, says Alan M. Dershowitz, comes from religiously inspired, state sponsored terrorist groups that seek to develop weapons of mass destruction for use against civilian targets. In his newest book, Dershowitz argues passionately and persuasively that global terrorism is a phenomenon largely of our own making and that we must and can take steps to reduce the frequency and severity of terrorist acts.

• America Declares Independence (2003)

• The Case for Israel (2003)
  The Case for Israel is an ardent defense of Israel's rights, supported by indisputable evidence: 
  -- Presents a passionate look at what Israel's accusers and detractors are saying about this war-torn country.
  -- Dershowitz accuses those who attack Israel of international bigotry and backs up his argument with hard facts.
  -- Widely respected as a civil libertarian, legal educator, and defense attorney extraordinaire, Alan Dershowitz has also been a passionate though not uncritical supporter of Israel.

• America on Trial: Inside the Legal Battles That Transformed Our Nation (2004)

• Rights from Wrongs: A Secular Theory of the Origins of Rights (2004)

• The Case for Peace: How the Arab-Israeli Conflict Can be Resolved (2005)

• Preemption: A Knife That Cuts Both Ways (2006)
  In Preemption, one of our nation's foremost legal scholars puts forward a controversial new theory on crime and punishment in the postmodern world. Using the American government's 2003 invasion of Iraq as a starting point, Alan M. Dershowitz tracks our society's increasing reliance on preemptive action. In Preemption, which Judge Richard Posner of the U.S. Court of Appeals calls "lucid, sober, courageous, and historically informed," Dershowitz has brought together all of his diverse and considerable talents and experiences to confront the idea of preemptive action as it applies to some of our most urgent political and moral dilemmas.

• What Israel Means to Me: By 80 Prominent Writers, Performers, Scholars, Politicians, and Journalists (2006)
  As one of Israel's staunchest supporters and most ardent defenders, Alan Dershowitz has long understood that the deep emotional pull of this ancient land and youthful state, while shared by so many, has distinct and personal meanings for each of us. What Israel Means to Me is not so much a book as a collection of love songs—each with its own theme, rhythm, and key—in which Dershowitz and many of the world's most distinguished politicians, diplomats, journalists, artists, scholars, and religious leaders share their most profound feelings, hopes, and memories about Israel.

  From Larry King, William Bennett, Ed Koch, Rabbi Harold Kushner, and David Mamet to Barney Frank, Pat Robertson, Erica Jong, and Jonathan Kellerman, the diverse group of all-star contributors pays tribute to the Jewish state, highlighting their personal connections to Israel's history, land, people, politics, and faith.

  In a passionate and brilliantly reasoned analysis of the current state of Israeli democracy, the actor/singer/activist Theodore Bikel reminds us that, in the debate over Israel's future, it is essential that all voices and opinions be heard. While speaking from a broad spectrum of political, religious, personal, and historical viewpoints, these inspiring and heartfelt tributes demonstrate that reverence, respect, and fierce loyalty toward Israel know no ideological boundaries.

  For many, love of Israel is inextricably linked with love of family. The game show host Monty Hall describes how he carries on a tradition of support and philanthropy in Israel bequeathed to him by his mother, and the journalist Leslie Gelb remembers his father standing up in a movie theater to sing along with the Israeli national anthem as he watched the film Exodus.

  Morton Klein, the national president of the Zionist Organization of America, who was born in a displaced persons camp after his parents survived the Holocaust, voices what, for many, is the single most important fact about Israel: "There is now a home to which Jews can come, and which will always protect them."

  From its countless ancient, sacred, and historical sites to its bountiful orchards and fields, from the safe haven it offers to Jews the world over to the lively, often angry debates over its policies and intentions, Israel's complex appeal, both for Jews and non-Jews, extends from body to mind to spirit. Touching repeatedly on each of these themes, What Israel Means to Me is a moving, thought-provoking volume that should be read and shared by everyone who cares about Israel.

• The Advocate's Devil (1994)

• Just Revenge (1999)
  Behind the wheel of his car, 74-year-old Max Menuchen, biblical scholar, holds his breath. He waits until the eight-year-old boy steps from the curb into the intersection. A split second later, man and car are bearing down on the terrified child. The weeks that follow find press and public in shocked speculation: what moved the mild-mannered academic to commit so monstrous a crime? The answer lies buried in a mass grave in the woods of Lithuania, where a family was slaughtered by a Nazi officer named Marcellus Prandus. Fifty-five years after the defeat of the Nazis, one mans search for vengeance culminates in a crime both awful and inspired. Now, in a trial that captivates and horrifies the world, celebrated trial lawyer Abe Ringel of The Advocates Devil mounts the defense of his career, and questions whether the most frightening of human passions, revenge can be reconciled with justice.

See also:

• Criminal Law: Theory and Process (1994) by Joseph Goldstein with Alan M. Dershowitz, Richard C. Donnelly, and Richard D. Schwartz