The Rights Revolution: Rights and Community in Modern America

History and social science furnish solid grounds on which Walker rebuts communitarian attacks on individual rights. Walker, a professor of criminal justice at the University of Nebraska, convincingly shows how current offensives from both the left and the right distort American history by imagining a time when we all lived peacefully, without constant invocations of personal rights. He argues that these critics ignore the law's historic exclusion of individuals from society based solely on race, religion or gender. For those uninitiated in this debate, Walker (In Defense of American Liberties: A History of the ACLU) offers a succinct but substantial overview of communitarian thinkers, from Newt Gingrich to Mary Ann Glendon, all the while demonstrating the shortcomings of their ideas. His no-nonsense approach to an often overblown debate demonstrates the extent to which ideology, not reality, often frames the issues. Echoing Michael Walzer, he defends the sensible claim that, contrary to some theorists, ""the best guarantee of an inclusive community, where full membership of every group is protected, is a vigilant, absolutist approach to individual rights."" From this perspective, rights, rather than undermining the development of communities, actually foster communal development. If Walker's arguments are correct, the breakdown of the sense of community in America will most likely need to be addressed by non-legal means. (Sept.)