U.S. History   Whose Right to Bear Arms Did the Second Amendment Protect? First Edition ©  2000 Saul Cornell The Ohio State University Overview Table of Contents About the Author(s) Buy This Book Exam & Desk Copies Whose right to bear arms did the Second Amendment protect? Today the Second Amendment has become one of the most controversial provisions of the American Bill of Rights, but what did the founding generation mean by it? Did they understand it to imply protection of an individual or a collective right to bear arms — and what were and are the ramifications of that difference? What ideological or social function did the militia serve in early America? These are just a few of the intriguing questions generated by the rich and controversial body of Second Amendment scholarship over the years. Exploring how late-eighteenth-century Americans understood the right to bear arms, the selections expose students to ongoing scholarly debates over this topic, providing insight into a number of the most important issues in early American historiography: the controversy over republicanism and liberalism, the tension between states' rights and individual rights, and the place of rights and revolution in the American constitutional experience.   "This is an excellent collection for introducing students to the ways historians engage in debate. The editor's introduction clearly and concisely lays out the historical background of the Second Amendment and the contradictory ways that subsequent generations have attempted to interpret it. The articles are well chosen and illustrate the efforts that every generation--especially our own--has made to recapture a usable past of a controvesial subject." David T. Konig, Washington University in St. Louis   Whose Right to Bear Arms Did the Second Amendment Protect? Paper Text, 188pgs. ISBN: 0-312-24060-0 ISBN-13: 978-0-312-24060-8 Estimated U.S. Price: $16.95 > More Versions