The Genesis of Justice : Ten Stories of Biblical Injustice That Led to the Ten Commandments and Modern Morality and Law

From the nation's most peripatetic civil liberties lawyer comes a "dazzling and stimulating" exploration of how the creation of the ten commandments provides the origins to today's law ( Library Journal ). Alan Dershowitz is one of America's most famous litigation experts. In the Genesis of Justice he examines the Genesis narratives to bring to the reader an insight into the creation of the ten commandments and much of what is now law. 7 Cain murders his brother--and walks . . .7 God gets angry--and millions die in flood . . .7 Abraham commits attempted murder--and is praised . . .7 Jacob deceives his father, then robs his brother--and gets away with it . . .Who among us has not questioned the "justice" found in the Book of Genesis? Now Alan M. Dershowitz, one of our most brilliant legal minds and author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Chutzpah, casts new light on these ancient tales. What he finds is . . . THE GENESIS OF JUSTICE Violence, lust, deception, murder, incest, and vengeance: These are the subjects of the biggest--and perhaps the juiciest--bestseller of all time, the Book of Genesis. Its oft-told tales have inspired and challenged humankind for generations. But perhaps never before has anyone examined these stories so provocatively from a modern legal perspective. Based on Alan Dershowitz's class at Harvard Law School, The Genesis of Justice shows how the Good Book is also a remarkable law book. According to Dershowitz, these seminal stories describe a people--and a God--struggling in a world before the invention of systematic rules, a primal place th