Madison's Militia: The Hidden History of the Second Amendment

This engaging history overturns the conventional wisdom about the Second Amendment—showing that the right to bear arms was not about protecting liberty but about preserving slavery.

In Madison's Militia, Carl Bogus illuminates why James Madison and the First Congress included the right to bear arms in the Bill of Rights. Linking together dramatic accounts of slave uprisings and electric debates over whether the Constitution should be ratified, Bogus shows that—contrary to conventional wisdom...