THE BILL OF RIGHTS: GOVERNMENT PROSCRIBED

The essays in this collection set the Bill of Rights in context by tracing its historical lineages and establishing the political context for its adoption by the states. They point out the differences between Federalist fears of anarchy and Antifederalist fears of tyranny, as eventually reconcilable, and examine how particular functional dimensions of the various rights were popularly conceived. The volume concludes with a comparative examination of the American and French experiences with the bill of rights that supports those scholars who argue for the critical role played by the Constitution's first amendments in matters of constitutional jurisprudence.

Ronald Hoffman is the Director of the Institute of Early American History and Culture. He is the author of A Spirit of Dissension: Economics, Politics and the Revolution in Maryland. Peter J. Albert is coeditory of the Samuel Gompers Papers at the University of Maryland, College Park.