Michael Waldman

By the president of the prestigious Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, the life story of the most controversial, volatile, misunderstood provision of the Bill of Rights. At a time of renewed debate over guns in America, what does the Second Amendment mean? This book looks at history to provide some surprising, illuminating answers. The Amendment was written to calm public fear that the new national government would crush the state militias made up of all (white) adult men—who were required to own a gun to serve. Waldman recounts the raucous public debate that has surrounded the amendment from its inception to the present. As the country spread to the Western frontier, violence spread too. But through it all, gun control was abundant. In the 20th century, with Prohibition and gangsterism, the first federal control laws were passed. In all four separate times the Supreme Court ruled against a constitutional right to own a gun. The present debate picked up in the 1970s—part of a backlash to the liberal 1960s and a resurgence of libertarianism. A newly radicalized NRA entered the campaign to oppose gun control and elevate the status of an obscure constitutional provision. In 2008, in a case that reached the Court after a focused drive by conservative lawyers, the US Supreme Court ruled for the first time that the Constitution protects an individual right to gun ownership. Famous for his theory of “originalism,” Justice Antonin Scalia twisted it in this instance to base his argument on contemporary conditions. In The Second Amendment: A Biography, Michael Waldman shows that our view of the amendment is set, at each stage, not by a pristine constitutional text, but by the push and pull, the rough and tumble of political advocacy and public agitation.

A Biography

The Second Amendment

From the beginning, and at every step along the way, as Americans sought to right to vote, others have fought to stop them. Waldman traces the full story from the founders' debates to today's challenges: a wave of restrictive voting laws, partisan gerrymanders, the flood of campaign money unleashed by Citizens United. The result is a compelling story of our struggle to uphold our most fundamental democratic ideals.

The Fight to Vote

An incisive analysis of how the Supreme Court’s new conservative supermajority is overturning decades of law and leading the country in a dangerous political direction. In The Supermajority, Michael Waldman explores the tumultuous 2021­–2022 Supreme Court term. He draws deeply on history to examine other times the Court veered from the popular will, provoking controversy and backlash. And he analyzes the most important new rulings and their implications for the law and for American society. Waldman asks: What can we do when the Supreme Court challenges the country? Over three days in June 2022, the conservative supermajority overturned the constitutional right to abortion, possibly opening the door to reconsider other major privacy rights, as Justice Clarence Thomas urged. The Court sharply limited the authority of the EPA, reducing the prospects for combatting climate change. It radically loosened curbs on guns amid an epidemic of mass shootings. It fully embraced legal theories such as “originalism” that will affect thousands of cases throughout the country. These major decisions—and the next wave to come—will have enormous ramifications for every American. It was the most turbulent term in memory—with the leak of the opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, the first Black woman justice sworn in, and the justices turning on each other in public, Waldman previews the 2022–2023 term and how the brewing fights over the Supreme Court and its role that already have begun to reshape politics. The Supermajority is a revelatory examination of the Supreme Court at a time when its dysfunction—and the demand for reform—are at the center of public debate.

How the Supreme Court Divided America

The Supermajority

Through both text and audio CDs, My Fellow Americans brings to life more than 40 presidential speeches from George Washington to George W. Bush that defined our nation's most dramatic moments. Organized chronologically by president, each speech is introduced by the author, telling the dramatic story of the speech and explaining its impact. In original essays, Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton describe the talks that influenced them the most. Two FREE audio CDs contain the speeches in the text. Narrated by George Stephanopoulos, the CDs let students hear these great speeches as they happened (some recordings are more than 100 years old) or are reenacted because they were given before the dawn of recorded audio.

The Most Important Speeches of America's Presidents, from George Washington to George W. Bush

My Fellow Americans

John Haltiwanger

An Investigation of Ex Post Mutually Beneficial Agreements

Interpreting Real World Contracts

Discusses how the savings and loan scandal occurred, who is at fault, and its effects on the American economy and taxpayers

Michael Waldman

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