Search Results for: Saul Cornell

Historian Saul Cornell on Originalism and the Impeachment Process

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Fordham University historian Saul Cornell asks, “How should the Constitution’s provisions on impeachment be interpreted?”  I am glad to see a historian weighing-in here. Here is a taste of Cornell’s piece at The New Republic: Another problem with originalism’s approach to history is its static (which is to say, decidedly ahistorical) view of the past. American … Continue reading Historian Saul Cornell on Originalism and the Impeachment Process

Saul Cornell on the “Mythic Second Amendment”

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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 on the Second Amendment

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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

When Does a Life Issue Demand Political Action and When are Just “Thoughts and Prayers” Enough?

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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?

When a School Shooting Shifted the National Debate on Guns

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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

Some Good Books on the Second Amendment and Guns in America

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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

Utah Senator Mike Lee’s Failed Attempt at American History

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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

*Was America Founded as a Christian Nation* Is Being Assigned Alongside These Books

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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

Gun Control, Prayer, and *The New York Daily News*

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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*

The Origins of Modern Gun Rights and the Antebellum South

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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