Volokh Conspiracy readers who are heading off to law school in the Fall might benefit from a short book on contract law I wrote recently as part of a series called, the Oxford Introductions to U.S. Law. It is written to be accessible to students and to discuss most of the “classic” cases one is likely to encounter in the first year Contracts course. Although it was written to be useful for any contracts class, it will be particularly valuable if your professor uses my casebook, Contracts: Cases and Doctrine. Of course, you won’t know that until you enroll. Admittedly, this book does represent my own view of contract law. But this is simply the way I have come to understand the subject after years of teaching and writing about it. It is my best take on contract law as it is, rather than my own prescription for how it should be reformed. (Where I shade over to the normative, I indicate this.) Although some contracts professors’ understanding may differ from mine, in which case you should always know your own professor’s approach. But most law professors who teach contracts do not have a scholarly interest in the subject — their expertise lies elsewhere — and they don’t have any coherent view of the subject. In these classes, some overview that makes sense of the doctrine can be very useful to keep one’s head screwed on straight. I really believe that coming into class with this under one’s belt would give one a leg up. So if you, or someone you love, is going to law school in the Fall, why not order a copy of the book to read over the summer? My guess is that the other books in this series, each written by a well-respected scholar in the field, would be similarly valuable. And it’s only $15.67 ($9.99 for Kindle edition)!