Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
The Bill of Rights series highlights the living and breathing document. Each anthology focuses on one civil right guaranteed by the amendments and traces its evolution throughout American history to the present. Primary documents -- including landmark Supreme Court rulings -- reveal the ongoing effort to define the exact meaning of the text and apply its abstract concepts to real-world cases. Secondary sources, including magazine articles and book excerpts, add an additional layer of analysis and commentary. Taken together, the volumes of The Bill of Rights series illuminate the defining ideals of American democracy.
Synopsis
Readers will analyze why it is not clear whether the Second Amendment supports an individual right to own guns or a collective right of states to raise and regulate militias. For decades, constitutional scholars and political activists have fervently debated the meaning of the amendment and its implications for gun control.