Overview
A new series that assembles secondary source readings, Historians at Work examines important documents or events from a variety of perspectives. The four to six unabridged selections in each volume focus on a contemporary question and are presented in a format that gives readers a way to join discussions. Introducing some of the best thinking about important historical issues, this innovative series provides a practical way to capture some of the intellectual excitement of historical research and interpretation.Whose right to bear arms did the Second Amendment protect? Today the Second Amendment has become one of the most controversial provisions of the Bill of Rights, but how did the founding generation comprehend 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.
Exploring how late-eighteenth-century Americans understood the right to bear arms, the selections expose readers 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.