Amy Chua

John M. Duff, Jr. Professor of Law
Education

J.D., Harvard Law School, 1987

A.B., Harvard University, 1984

Courses Taught
  • Contracts
  • International Business Transactions
Amy Chua

Amy Chua is the John M. Duff, Jr. Professor of Law at Yale Law School. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College and cum laude from Harvard Law School, where she was executive editor of Harvard Law Review. She then clerked for Chief Judge Patricia M. Wald on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and, prior to entering academics in 1994, practiced with the Wall Street firm Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton. She joined the Yale Law School faculty in 2001 and is a noted expert in the areas of foreign policy, political tribalism, and ethnic conflict.

Amy is the bestselling author of numerous books. Her first book, "World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability" was a New York Times bestseller and selected by both The Economist and The Guardian (U.K.) as a Best Book of 2003. She is also the author of the critically acclaimed "Day of Empire: How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance — and Why They Fall" (2007); New York Times bestseller, "The Triple Package: How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups in America" (co-authored with Jed Rubenfeld) (2013); and "Political Tribes: Group Instinct and the Fate of Nations" (2018). Her 2011 memoir, "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother," was a runaway international bestseller that has been translated into 30 languages. Amy’s 2023 debut novel, "The Golden Gate," was nominated for an Edgar Allen Poe Award for Best First Novel by an American Author.

Professor Chua has appeared on "Good Morning America," "The Today Show," "MorningJoe," "The Colbert Report," "Charlie Rose," "The View," "Fareed Zakaria GPS," and "Real Time with Bill Maher." She has addressed numerous government and policymaking institutions, including the Brookings Institution, Aspen Ideas Festival, the CIA, the World Economic Forum in Davos, and the World Knowledge Forum in Seoul. In 2011, she was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world, one of The Atlantic Monthly’s Brave Thinkers, and one of Foreign Policy’s Global Thinkers. She is also a multiple-time recipient of Yale Law School’s “Best Teaching” award.

News

Books

"Political Tribes: Group Instinct and the Fate of Nations(link is external)10" (2018)

"The Triple Package: How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups in America" (2014)

"Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother(link is external)11" (The Penguin Press, 2011)

"Day of Empire: How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance—And Why They Fall(link is external)12" (Doubleday, 2007)

"World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability(link is external)13" (Doubleday, 2003) 
(made The New York Times and Business Week bestseller lists; selected by both The Economist and The Guardian as one of the best books of 2003; featured on C-Span’s Booknotes and PBS’s The Jim Lehrer News Hour; translated into Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, Italian, and Spanish)
 

Commentary

"Five Best: Historical Thrillers(link is external)14," The Wall Street Journal

"Tribal World — Group Identity Is All(link is external)15," Foreign Affairs 

"How Billionaires Learned To Love Populism(link is external)16," Politico Magazine