Since ratification of the First Amendment in the late eighteenth century, there has been a sea change in American life. When the amendment was ratified, individuals were almost completely free of unwanted speech; but today they are besieged by it. Indeed, the First Amendment has, for all practical purposes, been commandeered by the media to justify intrusions of offensive speech into private life.In its application, the First Amendment has become one-sided. Even though America is v...

After reaching high levels of public popularity in the 1980s and 1990s, political conservatism has become beset with criticism and disillusionment. As demonstrated by the 2008 election results, political conservatism has been blamed for an unpopular Iraq war, an economy nose diving into recession, and a barrage of high profile instances of corporate misbehavior.This crisis in the ideological identity of and public confidence in conservatism is partly due to conservatism itself. Con...

The Power of Gratitude reflects on the experiences of Michael and Elizabeth Garry, who became an inspiration in their community, to reveal the secret to a life filled with the virtues we often consider unattainable. Michael and Elizabeth demonstrated how true gratitude might be foundational to everything else: the attribute that enables one to love without interruption, serve without expectation, persevere without anguish, and find joy in every minute of life. Gratitude is not just a thank...

The debate over the size and scope of the federal government has raged since the New Deal. So why have opponents of big government so rarely made political headway?Because they fail to address the fundamental issue.Patrick M. Garry changes that in this short, powerful book. Garry, a law professor and political commentator, debunks the myth that only government can help the average American survive and prosper in today's world.The truth, he reveals, is that big gover...

Eric Hoffer Award Grand Prize Short List, 2015What was the intended purpose and function of the Bill of Rights? Is the modern understanding of the Bill of Rights the same as that which prevailed when the document was ratified? In Limited Government and the Bill of Rights, Patrick Garry addresses these questions. Under the popular modern view, the Bill of Rights focuses primarily on protecting individual autonomy interests, making it all about the individua...

An Entrenched Legacy takes a fresh look at the role of the Supreme Court in our modern constitutional system. Although criticisms of judicial power today often attribute its rise to the activism of justices seeking to advance particular political ideologies, Patrick Garry argues instead that the Supreme Court’s power has grown mainly because of certain constitutional decisions during the New Deal era that initially seemed to portend a lessening of the Court’s power.When th...

Quintas Livius, a Roman tax clerk, finds himself a hunted man after filing an investigative report on a rash of disturbances in Galilee surrounding a supposed miracle worker named Jesus. In the wake of Jesus's crucifixion, the authorities in Jerusalem must squelch a brewing rebellion over what has come to be seen as a rushed execution of a genuine prophet. Because of his report, which had been submitted prior to Jesus's trial, Quin becomes a prime object of that post-crucifixion cover-up. ...

This book focuses on a key case study in the history of American territories, public works, transportation and the constitutional system of checks and balances. The saga of Yankton County’s attempt to bring the first railroad into Dakota Territory in 1873 covers 25 years of territorial history, leading up to statehood for South Dakota in 1889. Garry investigates the array of unusual facts and occurrences within the story of the Dakota Southern, which was the first railroad stretching into ...

The cult of the free market has dominated economic policy-talk since the Reagan revolution of nearly thirty years ago. Tax cuts and small government, monetarism, balanced budgets, deregulation, and free trade are the core elements of this dogma, a dogma so successful that even many liberals accept it. But a funny thing happened on the bridge to the twenty-first century. While liberals continue to bow before the free-market altar, conservatives in the style of George W. Bus...

What would the Framers of the Constitution make of multinational corporations? Nuclear weapons? Gay marriage? They led a preindustrial country, much of it dependent on slave labor, huddled on the Atlantic seaboard. The Founders saw society as essentially hierarchical, led naturally by landed gentry like themselves. Yet we still obey their commands, two centuries and one civil war later. According to Louis Michael Seidman, it's time to stop. In On Constitutional Disobedience, Seidm...

Parks and Recreation actor Nick Offerman shares his humorous fulminations on life, manliness, meat, and much more in his first book.Growing a perfect moustache, grilling red meat, wooing a woman—who better to deliver this tutelage than the always charming, always manly Nick Offerman, best known as Parks and Recreation’s Ron Swanson? Combining his trademark comic voice and very real expertise in woodworking—he runs his own woodshop—Paddle Your ...