Kindle
$14.99
Available instantly
Audible Logo Audiobook
$0.00
with membership trial
Hardcover
$16.75
Paperback
$13.49
Buy new:
-42% $16.75
$3.99 delivery Monday, May 13
Ships from: powells_chicago
Sold by: powells_chicago
$16.75 with 42 percent savings
List Price: $29.00

The List Price is the suggested retail price of a new product as provided by a manufacturer, supplier, or seller. Except for books, Amazon will display a List Price if the product was purchased by customers on Amazon or offered by other retailers at or above the List Price in at least the past 90 days. List prices may not necessarily reflect the product's prevailing market price.
Learn more
$3.99 delivery Monday, May 13. Details
Only 17 left in stock - order soon.
$$16.75 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$16.75
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
powells_chicago
Ships from
powells_chicago
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt. You may receive a partial or no refund on used, damaged or materially different returns.
Read full return policy
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt. You may receive a partial or no refund on used, damaged or materially different returns.
Read full return policy
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Payment
Secure transaction
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
$10.41
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
Text is unmarked. Text is unmarked. See less
FREE delivery Friday, May 10 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35. Order within 15 hrs 13 mins
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
$$16.75 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$16.75
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Amazon book clubs early access
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Explore Amazon Book Clubs
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Bruce Cannon Gibney
Follow
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

The Nonsense Factory: The Making and Breaking of the American Legal System Hardcover – May 14, 2019

by Bruce Cannon Gibney (Author)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 66 ratings
See all formats and editions
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$16.75","priceAmount":16.75,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"16","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"75","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"Kj9bbBDBiSuqLTzmV9H7jVQNXNdalpKGI1NIsq5icKHsGTm%2BWPA1YZJVQe%2BGDevuM80cYxqOyxv7mn9CLGLugOtyiHNvXD%2BWkboXNAyBTVzHVKlRfBhzzyBiAWAtEsrZskKlibbE9KsvkMfeeirK%2FDgWCijx4oBAPQ02GYyTGeqOD%2BiIuu6ISJYnPVzeX4QJ","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$10.41","priceAmount":10.41,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"10","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"41","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"Kj9bbBDBiSuqLTzmV9H7jVQNXNdalpKGR8g3CJEMP6EtWOrc5LhYb5QJwuAnZgo%2BWbVd6qJ9o%2BTot8kDLQ8rtkz%2B2bp6pYLr0VkQ%2FS03wb6y%2B0iESzyxTqkeFVe7IBlAfC5L1Bt5xMXi7EfvZw8KuI8FxAcQsAKNFdyXbvAFdKvTnyQh62jFf3%2F99v96CvbL","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons


A withering and witty examination of how the American legal system, burdened by complexity and untrammeled growth, fails Americans and threatens the rule of law itself, by the acclaimed author of A Generation of Sociopaths.




Our trial courts conduct hardly any trials, our correctional systems do not correct, and the rise of mandated arbitration has ushered in a shadowy system of privatized "justice." Meanwhile, our legislators can't even follow their own rules for making rules, while the rule of law mutates into a perpetual state of emergency. The legal system is becoming an incomprehensible farce. How did this happen?




In The Nonsense Factory, Bruce Cannon Gibney shows that over the past seventy years, the legal system has dangerously confused quantity with quality and might with legitimacy. As the law bloats into chaos, it staggers on only by excusing itself from the very commands it insists that we obey, leaving Americans at the mercy of arbitrary power. By examining the system as a whole, Gibney shows that the tragedies often portrayed as isolated mistakes or the work of bad actors -- police misconduct, prosecutorial overreach, and the outrages of imperial presidencies -- are really the inevitable consequences of law's descent into lawlessness.




The first book to deliver a lucid, comprehensive overview of the entire legal system, from the grandeur of Constitutional theory to the squalid workings of Congress, The Nonsense Factory provides a deeply researched and witty examination of America's state of legal absurdity, concluding with sensible options for reform.
Previous page
  1. Print length
    544 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Hachette Books
  4. Publication date
    May 14, 2019
  5. Dimensions
    6.5 x 1.95 x 9.35 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0316475262
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0316475266
  8. See all details
Next page
The Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.

Frequently bought together

The Nonsense Factory: The Making and Breaking of the American Legal System
$16.75
Only 17 left in stock - order soon.
Ships from and sold by powells_chicago.
+
A Generation of Sociopaths: How the Baby Boomers Betrayed America
$27.91
Get it as soon as Friday, May 10
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
Sold by Bluebird39 and ships from Amazon Fulfillment.
Total price:
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Details
Added to Cart
One of these items ships sooner than the other.
Show details Hide details
Choose items to buy together.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Law schools seeking a good overview could save themselves the trouble and just assign entering students [The Nonsense Factory].... A plain-English "wide-angle critique" of the legal system... Ambitious.... Non-lawyers and many attorneys, too, will certainly have a better sense of what ails our justice system after reading this book."― Washington Post

"The Nonsense Factory is a provocative polemic on the sorry state of American law. Whether you chiefly blame the Supreme Court or Congress or law professors or We The People ourselves--and whether or not you buy into every count of his indictment--Gibney's book raises serious questions about how we govern ourselves."―David A. Kaplan, author of The Most Dangerous Branch: Inside the Supreme Court's Assault on the Constitution

"A diligent, carefully considered overview of the law and its many facets.... Gibney is an insurrectionist with a heavy mind but a light heart.... His overarching intellectual project is a deeply admirable, and indeed, a patriotic one. He's willing to take a little heat to get some new ideas out there, and he's willing to make a few enemies in the process. By applying his deeply agile mind to the seemingly intractable obstacles of our democracy, he implicitly and crucially demonstrates the belief that real solutions exist."― Lawyers, Guns, and Money

"A keen, lively deconstruction of the American legal system's seemingly countless flaws."
―Kirkus Reviews

"Gibney is ... often funny, and his criticisms are serious, well-argued, and provocative."―Publishers Weekly

"Gibney (A Generation of Sociopaths) boldly declares that these chaotic times have been long-developing in the legal realm.... A timely investigation of the 'Imperial Presidency' considers the history and dangers of executive power. Ultimately, Gibney calls for structural reform and corrective actions.... Civic-minded readers .... will enjoy this ambitious and wry polemic on America's legal system."―Library Journal

"Monumental and hugely entertaining...smart, funny, incisive...."―"Good Law Bad Law" podcast with Aaron Freiwald

"[A] sweeping new study of America's legal system."―Jeff Jacoby, Boston Globe

"Really interesting book... stirring the pot."
―The Young Turks

About the Author

Bruce Cannon Gibney is the author of A Generation of Sociopaths: How the Baby Boomers Betrayed America. A venture capitalist and writer, Gibney began as an attorney specializing in securities litigation and financial regulation. He was an early investor in PayPal, and later joined Founders Fund and co-founded Carmenta Management. He and his colleagues have funded Facebook, Spotify, Palantir Technologies, SpaceX, Lyft, AirBnB, Coupang, and DeepMind.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Hachette Books (May 14, 2019)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 544 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0316475262
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0316475266
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.71 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1.95 x 9.35 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 66 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Bruce Cannon Gibney

Bruce Cannon Gibney

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Bruce Gibney is the author of "The Nonsense Factory" (May 2019), a survey of America's dysfunctional legal system, and "A Generation of Sociopaths," about Baby Boomers and their roles in American stagnation (2017).

Bruce also co-founded Carmenta, a venture capital firm, and was a partner at one of Silicon Valley’s leading venture firms, Founders Fund. His personal and fund investments included early stakes in PayPal, Lyft, Palantir Technologies, SpaceX, AI pioneer DeepMind and others. He started his career as a litigator.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
66 global ratings
A valuable look at the evolution and devolution of law and justice in our society
5 Stars
A valuable look at the evolution and devolution of law and justice in our society
This insightful and fair-minded book explores the history and foundations of our legal system and the serious systemic problems that have come to dominate our justice system, often creating grave injustices. I found the book pretty engaging and easy to follow. It provides a good analysis of the challenges that exist and offers some ideas for solutions, although there isn't really an in depth game plan for how we as a people might successfully push forward reforms that would improve the delivery of justice in our society. I think anyone seeking to address injustices in society would benefit from this overview of the roots of how the system that purports to support justice and an orderly society has been corrupted and manipulated in ways that are degrading our society.
Hide
Thank you for your feedback
Sorry, there was an error
Sorry we couldn't load the review

Top reviews from the United States

Shlomo
5.0 out of 5 stars The Legal System Doesn't Deliver
Reviewed in the United States on April 30, 2024
Verified Purchase
Gibney demonstrates, with thorough data and sharp analysis, that the legal system is in a great crisis and needs a deep reformation.
This book is a a crucial alarm, and should be learned and taken very seriously by anyone who cares for the rule of law.
Helpful
 Report
Hande Z
5.0 out of 5 stars Daring and Provocative
Reviewed in the United States on August 12, 2019
Verified Purchase
One of the most interesting, and provocative books to have been published this year on the state of the legal system in America. It comes at a critical time when the American democratic system has been exposed as so chaotic to be a role model, and now, Gibney is shining a bright light on the legal system. What is working in America these days?

This book emphasises the innumerable laws that have created countless offences that the ‘U.S. Department of Justice, charged with the enforcement of federal criminal law, can’t even count the number of criminal provisions’. Gibney moves on to show how the criminal is enforced in a totally idiosyncratic way. And why is that? Gibney points the finger at the police and the courts. The system is broken even before it comes to them. Gibney explains why Congress, charged with making laws, has shirked its duty because it just cannot manage. So, who is making the laws in America? Gibney says that that function has fallen into the hands of corporations, lobbyists, and administrators.

When cases do come to the courts, the judges cannot manage either. So, who is dealing with court cases? Gibney points to the law clerks – ‘people who are barely lawyers’. At the same time, Gibney observes, trial judges ‘are like Greek household gods, critical to the household but of little importance outside it’. Appellate judges, on the other hand, are superior gods – ‘the ones on whom senators, public interest groups, law professors, and reporters lavish their attention’. Gibney also scorns the duplicity in Chief Justice Roberts’ comment that a judge is like an umpire. At pages 155 to 157, Gibney explains why a judge is not an umpire.

When he has just about finished with the business of the courts, Gibney proceeds to show how arbitration has taken away justice from the justice system of America. Every commercial enterprise has locked in an arbitration clause, he says. He points to the attempt by General Mills which tried to construe the mere opening of its Cheerios cereal box as ‘consent to arbitration’.

Gibney then turns his attention to the training of lawyers, the practice of litigation, and the rules of evidence and procedure, all of which presenting a mountain for the litigant to climb. In criminal law, bail, or the absence of it is making people plea bargain. Jail without bail while waiting trial is the same as guilty without trial, Gibney says. He has a great deal to say about plea bargaining and the way prosecutors file a dozen charges on an accused for what is essentially the same set of facts, one offence.

Gibney’s final chapter produces thoughts on what can be done. He begins with the recognition that law needs a lot of work for it to be respected – ‘Law cannot survive when people cease to believe in it’. This is particularly important when we consider his discussions on the instances the American presidents from Truman to Trump have violated the constitution. In the case of Truman, getting into the Korean War without approval, and likewise, Johnson in Vietnam, and Bush J, getting into the Iraq war, without the sanction of Congress.
8 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
William
5.0 out of 5 stars This Is An Excellent Straightforward Book To The Point.
Reviewed in the United States on August 8, 2019
Verified Purchase
I liked reading this book because I feel that it is an excellent straightforward book to the point. It points out some of the deficiencies in the legal system and how some conditions can be improved. Some of the interesting facts that this book mentions includes the following information: Only 1% of police departments require a full four year college degree. Today, 60% of police officers in the 75 largest police force cities live outside the cities that employ them. 22 states allow people who aren't lawyers to be judges. Up to 97% of civil matters never reach trial. As far as the passing rates for the bar exams are concerned, the national average is 59% with CA having a low of 44% and Oklahoma having a high of 81%. Before the hourly (or six minutes increment) system went into effect, lawyers billed a fixed flat fee for a particular legal service. The CA prison inmate to toilet ratio is 54 inmates to only one toilet. Lawyers comprise just 36.5% of Congress at the present. District Attorney offices have the options to prosecute moderately, over prosecute, under prosecute, and not prosecute at all. The book mentions about the advantages and disadvantages of arbitration. The author says that no true freedom exists when consumers have no practical choice but to sign a contract. Few people choose to be unemployed. The book's author claimed that Roman law forbade certainly gross unfair contracts. He also mentions about unconscionability. This is an excellent book which I recommend that people read since it is very straightforward and to the point.
4 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Chris Prussing
5.0 out of 5 stars Crispy summation of the rolling disaster we've all been forced to participate in
Reviewed in the United States on May 28, 2019
Verified Purchase
All of us have most likely had to deal with The Law, and have come away feeling just as roughed up and shaken down as if we'd had a run-in with some alley holdup thug, even for something as supposedly simple as preparing a will. Probably not even the gods can help those who get caught in the gears of corporate law, patent law, or the criminal "justice" system.
Author takes us on a bushwhacking tour with gun and camera through law's current jungle, writing with crispy verve [or, as one of his professor's complained, "impertinence"].
A book that confirms all one's worst suspicions. I like to think of it as a bracing call to action.
4 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Frank
5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent insider's view of our legal system
Reviewed in the United States on October 27, 2022
Verified Purchase
Clear, detailed, and logical, this examination of the American legal system is well worth your time to read. It is fairly long, but I found it fascinating and plan to read it again. Highly recommended!
Helpful
 Report
D. Depperman
5.0 out of 5 stars They said the book's condition was good, and it was excellent.
Reviewed in the United States on September 2, 2019
Verified Purchase
I do not think it has been read, so aside from the bottom of the dust jacket being very slightly warped upward, It's a Keeper!
Helpful
 Report