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The Nature of Rights at the American Founding and Beyond (Constitutionalism and Democracy)

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This collection of essays by leading historians of the time surrounding America's founding is invaluable to anyone who is interested in understanding much of the terminology that was "in the air" during that period.

Whether in pamphlets, sermons, bills of rights, constitutions, letters, or speeches the words used in the run-up to the colonies' split from Great Britain cannot be understood in a "self-evident" way (as some present-day academics would have us believe). The essays in this volume offer important contextual analysis when it comes to figuring out exactly what the Founders meant when they spoke of "rights" and what this meant for the cause of revolution and the founding of a new nation.

If you want to begin to get a grasp on the legal philosophy of the Founding era then this book should be at the top of your list. No one should attempt to tackle this area of legal intellectual history without surveying these writers and their works here. Many speak today about the rhetoric of the Founding without actually attempting to understand what the Founders themselves meant when they used words like "rights." This book will help immerse the reader in the intellectual climate of the time and cut through some of the polemic-infused arguments of some current thinkers.