Whose right to bear arms did the Second Amendment protect? / readings selected and introduced by Saul Cornell ; selections by Robert E. Shalhope ... [and others].

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Cornell, Saul.

Shalhope, Robert E., 1941-2025.

Series:

Historians at work

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Firearms--Law and legislation--United States--History.

Firearms.

United States. Constitution--2nd Amendment--History.

United States.

Firearms--Law and legislation.

History.

Physical Description:

xv, 188 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Boston, MA : Bedford / St. Martin's, [2000]

Summary:

A new series that assembles secondary source readings, Historians at Work examines important documents or events from a variety of perspectives. The four to six unabridged selections in each volume focus on a contemporary question and are presented in a format that gives readers a way to join discussions. Introducing some of the best thinking about important historical issues, this innovative series provides a practical way to capture some of the intellectual excitement of historical research and interpretation.

Whose right to bear arms did the Second Amendment protect? Today the Second Amendment has become one of the most controversial provisions of the Bill of Rights, but how did the founding generation comprehend it? Did they understand it to imply protection of an individual or a collective right to bear arms -- and what were and are the ramifications of that difference? What ideological or social function did the militia serve in early America? These are just a few of the intriguing questions generated by the rich and controversial body of Second Amendment scholarship.

Exploring how late-eighteenth-century Americans understood the right to bear arms, the selections expose readers to ongoing scholarly debates over this topic, providing insight into a number of the most important issues in early American historiography: the controversy over republicanism and liberalism, the tension between states' rights and individual rights, and the place of rights and revolution in the American constitutional experience.

Contents:

Constitutional Amendments Proposed to and Ratified by the States, Including the Second Amendment 3

"To Keep and Bear Arms" 9

The Militia, the People, and the Problem of Rights in Revolutionary America 9

Scholars and the Second Amendment 17

1. Did the Second Amendment protect an individual's right to own guns? 27

The Armed Citizen in the Early Republic / Robert E. Shalhope

2. Was the Second Amendment intended to protect the people's right to maintain a well-regulated militia? 51

A Well-Regulated Militia: The Origins and Meaning of the Second Amendment, From The Bill of Rights: A Lively Heritage / Lawrence Delbert Cress

3. Does the Standard Model of the Second Amendment favored by some legal scholars distort the original understanding of the right to bear arms? 63

To Keep and Bear Arms, With Letters in Rebuttal from Sanford Levinson, David C. Williams, and Glenn Harlan Reynolds / Garry Wills

4. Was the Second Amendment primarily about the struggle between Federalists and Antifederalists over the nature of federalism? 97

The Federalized Militia Debate: A Neglected Aspect of Second Amendment Scholarship / Don Higginbotham

5. How did the reality of the militia differ from the ideal of the militia in Revolutionary America? 123

The People in Arms: The Invincible yeoman, From Inventing the People: The Rise of Popular Sovereignty in England and America / Edmund S. Morgan

6. Was the Second Amendment an outgrowth of America's gun culture? 145

The Origins of Gun Gulture in the United States, 1760-1865 / Michael A. Bellesiles.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 185-187).

ISBN:

031222818X

0312240600

OCLC:

44087112