(Source: Oxford University Press)
Oxford University Press has published a
book on the legal history of the US Constitution’s Bill of Rights.
DESCRIPTION
This is the
untold story of the most celebrated part of the Constitution. Until the
twentieth century, few Americans called the first ten constitutional amendments
drafted by James Madison in 1789 and ratified by the states in 1791 the Bill of
Rights. Even more surprising, when people finally started doing so between the
Spanish-American War and World War II, the Bill of Rights was usually invoked
to justify increasing rather than restricting the authority of the federal
government. President Franklin D. Roosevelt played a key role in that development,
first by using the Bill of Rights to justify the expansion of national
regulation under the New Deal, and then by transforming the Bill of Rights into
a patriotic rallying cry against Nazi Germany. It was only after the Cold War
began that the Bill of Rights took on its modern form as the most powerful
symbol of the limits on government power.
These are just
some of the revelations about the Bill of Rights in Gerard Magliocca's The
Heart of the Constitution. For example, we are accustomed to seeing the Bill of
Rights at the end of the Constitution, but Madison wanted to put them in the
middle of the document. Why was his plan rejected and what impact did that have
on constitutional law? Today we also venerate the first ten amendments as the
Bill of Rights, but many Supreme Court opinions say that only the first eight
or first nine amendments. Why was that and why did that change?
The Bill of
Rights that emerges from Magliocca's fresh historical examination is a living
text that means something different for each generation and reflects the great
ideas of the Constitution--individual freedom, democracy, states' rights,
judicial review, and national power in time of crisis.
TABLE
OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
Preface: The Bill of Rights
Introduction: The First Bill of Rights Day
Chapter 1: Fighting the Crown
Chapter 2: Opposing the Constitution
Chapter 3: Drafting the Amendments
Chapter 4: Wandering in the Wilderness
Chapter 5: Reconstructing the Union
Chapter 6: Justifying Imperialism
Chapter 7: Defending The New Deal
Chapter 8: Attacking The Führer
Chapter 9: Reinventing Judicial Review
Chapter 10: Waging the Cold War
Epilogue: A Sacred Relic
Appendix A: The English Declaration of
Rights (1689)
Appendix B: The Virginia Declaration of
Rights (1776)
Appendix C: The Universal Declaration of Human
Rights (1948)
Bibliography
Notes
Index
More information to be found on the website
of the publisher
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