Jack Rakove on Rights (Part of The Revolution Is News)

If you’re going to ask a scholar to speak about how we understand the development of rights through law in the early United States, well, it’s hard to beat Jack Rakove. Yes, he’s won a Pulitzer Prize, for Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution (1996), and he’s written important work before and since. My personal favorite is a book I regularly taught with and was glad we got to talk about, Declaring Rights: A Brief History with Documents (1998).

Professor Rakove treated us not to what he called a forensic history of the evolution of rights thought from the Magna Carta and beyond, but a closer look at the British American case from the colonial period forward. He gave us a way to think about and some material to consider when we ask: what are rights and where do they originate?; Who are the rights holders?; and then what are some specific issues that rights bear upon like the free exercise of religion, and due process. We talked about the all important James Madison, of course. And so much more. I hope you’ll watch.