Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

Bill of Wrongs: The Bush Administration's Assault on Our Fundamental Rights-and How to Fight Back

Bill of Wrongs: The Bush Administration's Assault on Our Fundamental Rights-and How to Fight Back

by Molly Ivins

Throughout her long career of “afflicting the comfortable and comforting the afflicted,” the cause closest to Molly Ivins’s heart was working to protect the freedoms we all value. Sadly, today we’re living in a time when dissent is equated with giving aid to terrorists, when any of us can be held in prison without even knowing the charges against us, and when our constitutional rights are being interpreted by a... (more)

Notes Of Debates: In The Federal Convention Of 1787

Notes Of Debates: In The Federal Convention Of 1787

by James Madison

Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime from The Sedition Act of 1798 to The War on Terrorism

Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime from The Sedition Act of 1798 to The War on Terrorism

by Geoffrey R. Stone

"A masterpiece of constitutional history, Perilous Times promises to redefine the national debate on civil liberties and free speech."—Elena Kagan, Harvard Law School Geoffrey Stone's Perilous Times incisively investigates how the First Amendment and other civil liberties have been compromised in America during wartime. Stone delineates the consistent suppression of free speech in six historical periods... (more)

The Bill of Rights: Creation and Reconstruction

The Bill of Rights: Creation and Reconstruction

by Akhil Reed Amar

A leading scholar of constitutional law delivers an incisive and brilliant new account of the Bill of Rights and explodes conventional wisdom about our most basic charter of liberty. Akhil Reed Amar not only illuminates the text, structure, and history of the 1789 Bill but also argues that its present character owes more to antislavery activists of the Reconstruction era than to the Founding Fathers who created... (more)

Freedom for the Thought That We Hate: Tales of the First Amendment

Freedom for the Thought That We Hate: Tales of the First Amendment

by Anthony Lewis

From one of the country's most esteemed experts on the First Amendment and the author of the classic Gideon's Trumpet , an eloquent essay on the importance of freedom of expression. More than any other people on earth, Americans are free to say and write what they think. The media can air the secrets of the White House, the boardroom, or the bedroom with little fear of punishment or penalty. The reason for... (more)

The Constitutional And Legal Rights of Women: Cases in Law And Social Change

The Constitutional And Legal Rights of Women: Cases in Law And Social Change

by Judith A. Baer

"The Constitutional and Legal Rights of Women: Cases in Law and Social Change" is designed to provide undergraduate students with a comprehensive, sophisticated treatment of the legal status of all American women. Authors Baer and Goldstein skillfully blend doctrinal and political developments to document and explain the evolution of women's rights and the law - as well as the dynamics and dissension within the... (more)

John Marshall: Definer of a Nation

by Jean Edward Smith

A New York Times Notable Book of 1996 It was in tolling the death of Chief Justice John Marshall in 1835 that the Liberty Bell cracked, never to ring again. An apt symbol of the man who shaped both court and country, whose life “reads like an early history of the United States,” as the Wall Street Journal noted, adding: Jean Edward Smith “does an excellent job of recounting the details of Marshall’s life... (more)

Gideon's Trumpet (Vintage)

by Anthony Lewis

A history of the landmark case of James Earl Gideon's fight for the right to legal counsel. Notes, table of cases, index. The classic backlist bestseller. More than 800,000 sold since its first pub date of 1964.

The Betrayal of America: How the Supreme Court Undermined the Constitution and Chose Our President

The Betrayal of America: How the Supreme Court Undermined the Constitution and Chose Our President

by Vincent Bugliosi

During the course of American history, wrongful events have occurred and certain Americans have stood up and spoken out against these wrongs: Tom Paine, Edward R. Murrow, Daniel Ellsberg. Vincent Bugliosi takes his place in this special pantheon of patriots with his powerful, brilliant, and courageous expose of crime by the highest court in the land. When an article he wrote on this topic appeared in The Nation... (more)

Original Meanings

Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution

by Jack N. Rakove

From abortion to same-sex marriage, today's most urgent political debates will hinge on this two-part question: What did the United States Constitution originally mean and who now understands its meaning best? Rakove chronicles the Constitution from inception to ratification and, in doing so, traces its complex weave of ideology and interest, showing how this document has meant different things at different times... (more)

So Help Me God: Presidential Faith, Pulpit Politics, and the First Great Battle to Save America's Soul

So Help Me God: Presidential Faith, Pulpit Politics, and the First Great Battle to Save America's Soul

by F. Forrester Church

Today’s dispute over the line between church and state (or the lack thereof) is neither the first nor the fiercest in our history. In a powerful retelling of the birth of the American body politic, religious historian Forrest Church describes our first great culture war—a tumultuous yet nearly forgotten conflict that raged from George Washington’s presidency to James Monroe’s. On one side of the battle, the... (more)

The Constitution, the Law, and Freedom of Expression, 1787-1987Hon. Warren E. Burger

The Constitution, the Law, and Freedom of Expression, 1787-1987

by Hon. Warren E. Burger

In recognition of the bicentennial of the Constitution of the United States, former chief justice Warren E. Burger, Justice Antonin Scalia, ACLU president Norman Dorsen, and others delivered papers at the first annual DeWitt Wallace Conference on the Liberal Arts, held at Macalester College, St. Paul. Joining some of the best legal minds in America were novelist John Edgar Wideman, chemist Harry B. Gray,... (more)

Color-Blind Justice: Albion Tourgee and the Quest for Racial Equality from the Civil War to Plessy v. Ferguson

Color-Blind Justice: Albion Tourgee and the Quest for Racial Equality from the Civil War to Plessy v. Ferguson

by Mark Emory Elliott

Civil War officer, Reconstruction "carpetbagger," best-selling novelist, and relentless champion of equal rights, Albion Tourgee battled his entire life for racial justice. Now, in this engaging biography, Mark Elliott offers an insightful portrait of a fearless lawyer, jurist, and writer, who fought for equality long after most Americans had abandoned the ideals of Reconstruction. Elliott provides a... (more)

Less Than Perfect Union: Alternative Perspectives on the US ConstitutionJules; (ed.) Lobel

Less Than Perfect Union: Alternative Perspectives on the US Constitution

by Jules; (ed.) Lobel

American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies in the Founding of the Republic

American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies in the Founding of the Republic

by Joseph J. Ellis

From the prizewinning author of the best-selling Founding Brothers and American Sphinx , a masterly and highly ironic examination of the founding years of our country. The last quarter of the eighteenth century remains the most politically creative era in American history, when a dedicated and determined group of men undertook a bold experiment in political ideals. It was a time of triumphs; yet, as Joseph J.... (more)

Black Resistance/White Law: A History of Constitutional Racism in America

Black Resistance/White Law: A History of Constitutional Racism in America

by Mary Frances Berry

Unavailable for a decade and now completely updated for the 1990s, this landmark book shows how the American government has used the Constitution to maintain a racist status quo. Berry analyzes the reasons why African Americans whose lives have improved both socially and economically are still at risk of police abuse and largely unprotected from bias crimes.

Witnesses at the Creation: Hamilton, Madison, Jay, and the ConstitutionRichard B. Morris

Witnesses at the Creation: Hamilton, Madison, Jay, and the Constitution

by Richard Brandon Morris

Hybrid: Bisexuals, Multiracials, and Other Misfits under American Law (Critical America Series)

Hybrid: Bisexuals, Multiracials, and Other Misfits under American Law (Critical America Series)

by Ruth Colker

The United States, and the West in general, has always organized society along bipolar lines. We are either gay or straight, male or female, white or not, disabled or not. In recent years, however, America seems increasingly aware of those who defy such easy categorization. Yet, rather than being welcomed for the challenges that they offer, people living the gap are often ostracized by all the communities to... (more)

Same-Sex Marriage and the Constitution

by Evan Gerstmann

Does the Constitution protect the right to same-sex marriage? Taking a careful look at the issue, Evan Gerstmann looks at the legal debate, and asks whether, in a democratic society, the courts, rather than voters, should resolve the question. Gerstmann also asks whether such a court-created law could be effective in the face of public opposition. Evan Gerstmann argues that this problem is one of the most... (more)

New England Dissent, 1630-1833: The Baptists and the Separation of Church and State (Center for the Study of the History of Liberty in America)William G. McLoughlin

Shelfari Book Activity

Tags: constitution-u.s.

by Molly Ivins

by James Madison

by Geoffrey R. Stone

by Akhil Reed Amar

by Anthony Lewis

by Judith A. Baer

by Jean Edward Smith

by Anthony Lewis

by Vincent Bugliosi

Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution

by Jack N. Rakove

by F. Forrester Church

by Hon. Warren E. Burger

by Mark Emory Elliott

by Jules; (ed.) Lobel

by Joseph J. Ellis

by Mary Frances Berry

by Richard Brandon Morris

by Ruth Colker

by Evan Gerstmann

by William G. McLoughlin