The Bill of Rights Creation and Reconstruction Akhil Reed Amar

A leading scholar of constitutional law delivers an incisive and brilliant new account of the Bill of Rights and explodes conventional wisdom about our most basic charter of liberty. Akhil Reed Amar not only illuminates the text, structure, and history of the 1789 Bill but also argues that its present character owes more to antislavery activists of the Reconstruction era than to the Founding Fathers who created the Bill.

Akhil Reed Amar is Southmayd Professor of Law at Yale. He is the author of scores of articles on constitutional law and criminal procedure, as well as The Constitution and Criminal Procedure: First Principles (ISBN 0 300 07488 3, pb. #10.95), published by Yale University Press.

"Amar takes us on a historical odyssey...[He] offer[s] a striking and original analysis of the political values embodied in the amendments...Amar's stimulating republican interpretation restores the states and the people to their rightful place in the constitutional story." James Henretta, New York Times Book Review "Striking claims...striking implications." Cass R. Sunstein, The New Republic "One of the most important books about constitutional interpretation of its generation." Jeffrey Rosen, American Lawyer "Essential reading for anyone who claims to care about the history of liberty in America." Nadine Strossen "A major contribution to the history of American liberties." Eric Foner