'The American Bill of Rights is . . . a magic mirror,' writes Bernard Schwartz, 'wherein we see reflected not only our lives, but the whole pageant of Anglo-American constitutional development and all that those struggles have meant in the history of freedom.' Perhaps the finest short history of the Bill of Rights ever written, this is an updated, expanded version of the classic. The author has added an afterword that brings the history of what Madison called 'the great rights of mankind' through the Rehnquist court, making this an invaluable study.
The Great Rights of Mankind follows the development of individual rights from the earliest English antecedents through their modern interpretations by the courts. It is arguably the single best short book written on the Bill of Rights.
