(To be published in May of 2025)
The first ten amendments of the U.S. Constitution—known as the Bill of Rights—include the guarantee that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. Yet this soaring vision of human rights was written by enslavers who deprived others of these rights. The struggle to resolve this paradox continues to the present day.
From Teri Kanefield comes the story of the Bill of Rights, from the founding of America to the first sedition laws, slavery, women’s equality, Prohibition, the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, the Civil Rights movement, gun control, and more.
Using real court cases, Kanefield explains the meaning of each of the first ten amendments. The result is the story of Americans who have tested the limits of their rights or demanded that their rights be recognized. With full-color illustrations and thought-provoking text, Rebels, Robbers, and Radicals explores how our rights as citizens evolve as the nation grows and changes.
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Books on civics and government often present the material in the form of dry facts that have little relevance to most young people, like this: We have three branches of government, or you have the right to a jury trial.
Law students, in contrast, read court cases—the stories of real people engaged in conflicts. Legal principles are woven into the fabric of the case the way morals are woven into fables.
Stories of people in conflict are always livelier than dry explanations, particularly when those people include bank robbers like Bonnie and Clyde, high school students challenging violations of their rights, and rebels who refuse to obey laws they believe to be unjust.
Because cases about the Bill of Rights tend to be about people either testing the limits of their rights or demanding that their rights be recognized, they are often among the most marginalized and vilified. It is, after all, those who have been marginalized who have had to fight hardest for their rights to be recognized.It wasn’t until law school that I became fascinated by civics and government, and I knew the reason: I was not being offered superficial explanations. I was reading real-world stories about real people in actual conflicts.
My goal in writing this book was to make the law as interesting and relevant to the general reader as it is to law students.
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Q: What is the reading level?
I wrote it at the same level I wrote for California appellate justices 😂.
Okay, seriously — it’s the highest level before kids start reading adult-level books. Also here’s a secret: A lot of adults also read my books.