7. Rights

Throughout American history, rights have been invented and repudiated, fought over and striven for, expanded and violated. From the nation’s beginnings, revolutionaries appealed to natural rights, but the question often became which rights and for whom? ‘Rights’ explains that what is most striking about the conflict over rights has been its democratic character. Rights are always a matter of public debate about the proper balance between order and liberty. It is a conversation that engaged the framers of the Constitution, and, as has been the case with each successive generation, Americans are continually working out the boundaries of what individual liberties are essential for a just and free society.