States Rights

Nearly two centuries after his death, Thomas Jefferson continues to be the subject of competing claims about his public policy and private beliefs. In Getting Jefferson Right: Fact-Checking Claims About Thomas Jefferson, two conservative scholars examine key claims frequently made by religious conservatives about Thomas Jefferson. Using Jefferson's correspondence, accounts of Jefferson's contemporaries, and other primary sources, Throckmorton and Coulter separate fact from fiction. In the first edition, the authors focused on claims made by David Barton in his book The Jefferson Lies. ...

Americans are deeply divided over the Second Amendment. Some passionately assert that the Amendment protects an individual's right to own guns. Others, that it does no more than protect the right of states to maintain militias. Now, in the first and only comprehensive history of this bitter controversy, Saul Cornell proves conclusively that both sides are wrong. Cornell, a leading constitutional historian, shows that the Founders understood the right to bear arms as neither an individual nor a collective right, but as a civic right.

By the end of the 20th century there had been a veritable deluge of philosophical essays and books about children’s rights, adultery, family violence, the ethics of divorce, the limits of state intervention in the family, gay marriage, filial duties, and the right to have and raise children. There is now a substantial body of writing on these and other related topics for interested readers and scholars. While sorting through the past 45 years of my own research and writing about family law and family ethics, I discovered that most of it fits into one of four thematic areas: children’s ...

"Carl Schurz' "States' Rights and Byron Paine" was an address he delivered at Albany Hall, Milwaukee, March 23, 1859. In it, he defended his position, which no doubt was also the position of the bulk of the anti-slavery men of the time, of states rights and the compact theory of the union.

The Full Story of African American History — All in One Place Most history books only tell part of the story. They might teach a little about slavery, a few famous names, or the Civil Rights Movement. But there’s so much more to know. This book brings it all together. It tells the full story of African American history — from early inventions and everyday heroes to powerful leaders and artists who helped shape the country. It shows how African Americans have always been part of building, changing, and inspiring the world around them. This is not just about one time in history. It’s ...

A riveting investigation into how a restive region of China became the site of a nightmare Orwellian social experiment - the definitive police state - and the global technology giants that made it possible.

In The Small and the Mighty, Sharon McMahon proves that the most remarkable Americans are often ordinary people who didn’t make it into the textbooks. Not the presidents, but the telephone operators. Not the aristocrats, but the schoolteachers. Through meticulous research, she discovers history’s unsung characters and brings their rich, riveting stories to light for the first time.

In 1789, James Madison and James Monroe ran against each other for Congress-the only time that two future presidents have contested a congressional seat. But what was at stake, as author Chris DeRose reveals in Founding Rivals: Madison vs. Monroe, the Bill of Rights, and the Election That Saved a Nation, was more than personal ambition. This was a race that determined the future of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the very definition of the United States of America.

An exploration of how and why the Constitution's plan for independent courts has failed to protect individuals' constitutional rights, while advancing regressive and reactionary barriers to progressive regulation.

Less than three weeks before the 1960 presidential election, 31-year-old Martin Luther King, Jr. was arrested at a sit-in at Rich's Department Store in Atlanta. That day would lead to the first night King had ever spent in jail - and the time that King's family most feared for his life. Based on fresh interviews, newspaper accounts, and extensive archival research, Nine Days is the first full recounting of an event that changed the course of one of the closest elections in American history.

A Queer History of the United States abounds with startling examples of unknown or often ignored aspects of American history - the ineffectiveness of sodomy laws in the colonies, the impact of new technologies on LGBT life in the 19th century, and how rock music and popular culture were, in large part, responsible for the devastating backlash against gay rights in the late 1970s. Bronski documents how, over centuries, various incarnations of social purity movements have consistently attempted to regulate all sexuality, including fantasies, masturbation, and queer sex.

American History for Teens: The Stories, Struggles, and Heroes That Shaped the United States History comes alive like never before in this fast-moving, visually rich exploration of America’s past! From the arrival of the first Indigenous Americans to the triumphs of the civil rights movement and the drama of the Space Race, this book takes teens on an unforgettable journey through centuries of inspiring stories and pivotal moments. Packed with educational images, easy-to-understand maps, and interactive activities, this book transforms history into an engaging and accessible adventure. ...

In The Accident of Color, Daniel Brook journeys to 19th-century New Orleans and Charleston and introduces us to cosmopolitan residents who elude the racial categories the rest of America takes for granted. Before the Civil War, these free, openly mixed-race urbanites enjoyed some rights of citizenship and the privileges of wealth and social status. But after Emancipation, as former slaves move to assert their rights, the black-white binary that rules the rest of the nation begins to intrude.

During the civil rights movement, the state of Mississippi created an elaborate spy network. Its mission was to preserve segregation by any means necessary—including voter interference, sponsorship of white supremacy groups, and even murder.

The legacy of President Franklin D. Roosevelt enjoys regular acclaim from historians, politicians, and educators. But is that true? Deploying an abundance of primary source evidence and well-reasoned arguments, historian and distinguished professor emeritus David T. Beito masterfully presents a complete account of the real Franklin D. Roosevelt: a man who abused power, violated human rights, targeted dissidents, and let his crude racism imprison American citizens merely for being of Japanese descent.

The little-known and under-studied 1807 Insurrection Act was passed to give the president the ability to deploy federal military forces to fend off lawlessness and rebellion, but it soon became much more than the sum of its parts. Its power is integrally linked to the perceived threat of Black American equity in what lawyer and critic Hawa Allan demonstrates is a dangerous paradox. While the act was initially used to repress rebellion against slavery, during Reconstruction it was invoked by President Grant to quell white-supremacist uprisings in the South.

In 1957, Frank Kameny, a rising astronomer working for the US Military in Hawaii, received a summons to report immediately to Washington, DC. The Pentagon had reason to believe he was a homosexual, and after a series of humiliating interviews, Kameny - like gay men and women for generations - was promptly dismissed from the military. Unlike many others, though, Kameny fought back.

Revered today for articulating America's founding principles, the first 10 amendments - the Bill of Rights - were in fact a political stratagem executed by James Madison to preserve the Constitution, the federal government, and the latter's authority over the states.

Step into the heart of America's foundation with Charters of Freedom: The United States Law Collection, a beautifully curated and remastered edition of the three most pivotal documents in American history: The Declaration of Independence, The United States Bill of Rights, and The United States Constitution. These timeless texts, which have shaped the values and freedoms of the nation, are now more relevant than ever.

At once a powerful evocation of his early life in Harlem and a disturbing examination of the consequences of racial injustice to both the individual and the body politic, James Baldwin galvanized the nation in the early days of the civil rights movement with this eloquent manifesto. The Fire Next Time stands as one of the essential works of our literature.