Description
Book SynopsisJoyce Malcolm illuminates the historical facts underlying the current passionate debate in America about gun-related violence, the Brady Bill, and the National Rifle Association, revealing the original meaning and intentions behind the individual right to "bear arms."
Trade ReviewJoyce Malcolm's book reminds us forcibly that arguments for gun ownership were, until quite recently, respectable and persuasive, and that gun control and peaceable behaviour appear to be unrelated phenomena. -- David Wootton * London Review of Books *
A groundbreaking book on the history of gun rights. -- John J. Miller * National Review *
A work of genuine excellence, as persuasive in its argument as it is unsettling in its implications...Malcolm's prose is both vigorous and elegant, and occasionally even witty, a virtue rarely to be found in a constitutional treatise. The book should generate a healthy debate about the future of gun control in America. -- Douglas R. Egerton * American Historical Review *
A wide audience, including social scientists, historians, lawyers, and anyone interested in the gun-ownership debate, should welcome this concise, well-written history. -- Allan D. Olmsted * Contemporary Sociology *
[Malcolm] provides a skillful analysis of how the Englishmen's duty to bear arms was transformed into a right to bear arms. -- Robert E. Shalhope * Journal of American History *
Table of Contents* Preface *1. A People Armed *2. Bearing Arms through War and Revolution *3. The Dissidents Disarmed *4. The Gentleman's Game *5. Enforcement of Arms Restrictions *6. James II and Control of Firearms *7. Arms for Their Defence: The Making of a "True, Ancient, and Indubitable Right" *8. The Second Amendment and the English Legacy * Afterword * Abbreviations * Notes * Index
