Fordham University’s Saul Cornell, the author of A Well-Regulated Militia: The Founding Fathers and the Origins of Gun Control, explains the myth that the Second Amendment relates to the history of the American frontier. Here is a taste of his piece, “Bearing Arms vs. Hunting Bears: The Persistence of a Mythic Second Amendment in Contemporary Constitutional … Continue reading Saul Cornell on the “Mythic Second Amendment”
Saul Cornell is the Paul and Diane Guenther Chair in American History at Fordham University and the author of A Well-Regulated Militia: The Founding Fathers and the Origins of Gun Control in America. In Wednesday’s New York Daily News he published an op-ed entitled “The Second Amendment You Don’t Know.” He argues that the founders’ … Continue reading Saul Cornell on the Second Amendment
Over at Dissent, legal historian Saul Cornell has a very thorough piece on why most historians oppose “original intent” as the best way to interpret the United States Constitution. Cornell argues that historians do not oppose original intent because they are liberal (although this may have something to do with it). Instead they tend to … Continue reading Saul Cornell on "Original Intent"
Earlier today we posted a syllabus on guns in America. One of our readers directed me to a Project Muse website called Muse in Focus: Addressing Gun Violence. Here is what it is all about: Gun violence remains a pervasive public health crisis in the United States. As the country grows all too familiar with … Continue reading Free Scholarship on Guns in America
The history website Bunk recently directed me to Caroline Light and Lindsay Livingston‘s “Gun Studies” syllabus at Public Books. Here is a taste: WEEK 1 “To Keep and Bear”: An Introduction to Gun Culture in the United States This week’s readings seek to demystify and question what is meant by “gun culture” and to introduce some … Continue reading A Gun Studies Syllabus
In the wake of the El Paso and Dayton shootings, conservative evangelicals are offering lots of thoughts and prayers. Many of them are saying that we need to solve the problem of mass shootings through a spiritual reformation. The real problem, they preach, is the moral degradation of our culture. Guns don’t kill people, mentally … Continue reading When Does a Life Issue Demand Political Action and When are Just “Thoughts and Prayers” Enough?
Saul Cornell, the best historian on guns and the Second Amendment working today, tells us about an 1853 school shooting in Louisville, Kentucky. Here is a taste of his piece at Politico: Though little remembered now, the first high-profile school shooting in the U.S. was more than 150 years ago, in Louisville, Kentucky. The 1853 murder … Continue reading When a School Shooting Shifted the National Debate on Guns
I have been waiting for Fordham University historian Saul Cornell to weigh-in on guns and the Second Amendment in the wake of the Parkland shooting. In this piece at “The Conversation” he suggests “five types of gun laws the Founding Fathers loved.” They are: Registration Public Carry Stand-your-ground laws Safe storage laws Loyalty oaths See how … Continue reading The Founding Fathers and Gun Laws
Fordham University history professor Saul Cornell suggests five: Registration Public carry Stand-your-ground laws Safe storage laws Loyalty oaths See how Cornell, the author of A Well-Regulated Militia: The Founding Fathers and the Origins of Gun Control in America, unpacks these five laws at The Conversation.
In an earlier post I recommended Fordham University historian Saul Cornell‘s book A Well-Regulated Militia: The Founding Fathers and the Origins of Gun Control in America. It is the best historical account of the Second Amendment that I have read. I was again reminded of why I admire Cornell’s book when I read his recent piece … Continue reading The Real History of the Second Amendment
Saul Cornell, A Well-Regulated Militia: The Founding Fathers and the Origins of Gun Control in America Saul Cornell, Who’s Right to Bear Arms Did the Second Amendment Protect? Akhil Reed Amar, The Bill of Rights: Creation and Reconstruction Adam Winkler, Gunfight: The Battle Over the Right to Bear Arms in America Michael Waldman, The Second Amendment: A Biography Carol … Continue reading Some Good Books on the Second Amendment and Guns in America
Over at Politico, Utah Senator Mike Lee, the author of a new book on the Anti-Federalists titled Written Out of History: The Forgotten Founders Who Fought Big Government, warns against using history to “seek out confirmation for our pre-existing beliefs.” He then goes right ahead and uses history to seek out confirmation for his pre-existing beliefs. … Continue reading Utah Senator Mike Lee’s Failed Attempt at American History
Are you familiar with the Open Syllabus Project? The creators describe it in today’s New York Times. Here is a taste: …Over the past two years, we and our partners at the Open Syllabus Project (based at the American Assembly at Columbia) have collected more than a million syllabuses from university websites. We have also begun to … Continue reading *Was America Founded as a Christian Nation* Is Being Assigned Alongside These Books
A few things online that caught my attention this week: Peter Thompson and other discuss Thomas Paine The public of public intellectuals The Mormon King of Lake Michigan Forrest McDonald, RIP Do evangelicals believe that Donald Trump’s wealth makes him God’s anointed? Defending Bernie Women and the Civil Rights Movement Teaching history without chronology Historians and … Continue reading Sunday Night Odds and Ends
You have probably seen it by now. In the wake of Wednesday’s San Bernardino shootings The Daily News took a swipe at GOP politicians praying for the victims and their families. “God Isn’t Fixing This,” New York’s “hometown newspaper” announced on the front page of its December 3, 2015 issue. The page included tweets from … Continue reading Gun Control, Prayer, and *The New York Daily News*
Over at The Atlantic, Saul Cornell and Eric Ruben argue: “the idea that citizens have an unfettered constitutional right to carry weapons in public originates in the antebellum South, and its culture of violence and horror.” Cornell is the Paul and Diane Guenther Chair in American History at Fordham University and the author of A Well-Regulated Militia: … Continue reading The Origins of Modern Gun Rights and the Antebellum South
A few things online that caught my attention this week:Salem The Museum of the Bible Defining public humanities Company towns Should we use “United States” instead of “Union” when we teach the Civil War? College-educated millennials are becoming nuns 1815 map of George Washington’s university Vintage airline posters Thomas Jefferson rented slaves New books in … Continue reading Sunday Night Odds and Ends
Here are the most popular posts of the last week at The Way of Improvement Leads Home: 1. Gina Barreca on Sloth2. A Christian Conservative on the “Callous” Theology of James Dobson 3.. What Do You Think About the End of the Print Edition of the Encyclopedia Brittanica?4. Jeremy Lin and the “Asian Stereotype” 5. … Continue reading Most Popular Posts of the Last Week
A few things online that caught my attention this week: Peter Gordon reviews Mathew Specter, Habermas, An Intellectual Biography. Nouns turning into verbs. Michael Ruse on original sin. Steven Hahn reviews Eric Foner’s The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery. Thousands of Kennedy documents go online. See some examples here. Chris Bray debunks Robert … Continue reading Sunday Night Odds and Ends
I am writing tonight from New York City where I am preparing for an early American history seminar (Teaching American History Grant) with a group of teachers from Guilford County, North Carolina. Today (Monday) Colin Calloway from Dartmouth spoke to them about Indians in colonial America. Tomorrow (Tuesday) I will be teaching the American Revolution. … Continue reading The American Revolution in New York City
