To Keep and Bear Arms: The Origins of an Anglo-American Right

by Joyce Lee Malcolm

Joyce Malcolm illuminates the historical facts underlying the current passionate debate about gun-related violence, the Brady Bill, and the NRA, revealing the original meaning and intentions behind the individual right to “bear arms.” Few on either side of the Atlantic realize that this extraordinary, controversial, and least understood liberty was a direct legacy of English law. This book explains how the Englishmen’s hazardous duty evolved into a right, and how it was transferred to America and transformed into the Second Amendment.

Malcolm’s story begins in turbulent seventeenth-century England. She shows why English subjects, led by the governing classes, decided that such a dangerous public freedom as bearing arms was necessary. Entangled in the narrative are shifting notions of the connections between individual ownership of weapons and limited government, private weapons and social status, the citizen army and the professional army, and obedience and resistance, as well as ideas about civilian control of the sword and self-defense. The results add to our knowledge of English life, politics, and constitutional development, and present a historical analysis of a controversial Anglo-American legacy, a legacy that resonates loudly in America today.

Genres: History, Politics, Law, Nonfiction

232 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Joyce Lee Malcolm is a professor at George Mason University School of Law. A historian and constitutional scholar specializing in British and colonial American history, she focuses on the development of individual rights and on war and society.

She previously taught at Princeton University, Bentley University, Boston University, Northeastern University and Cambridge University. She is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and bye fellow of Robinson College, Cambridge University. Recipient of many awards and grants, she served as a Senior Advisor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Security Studies Program and a Visiting Scholar at the Massachusetts Center for Renaissance Studies.

Reviews

[Greg Mcneilly · Rating 4 out of 5]

TO KEEP & BEAR ARMS: The Origins of an Anglo-American Right | Malcom, Joyce Lee

Joyce Malcom chronicles, in excruciating detail, the history of the English population’s use and abuse of gun rights. Nearly 400 years of one King giving guns out and relying upon an armed citizenship to the next King demanding country Lords surrender or register them. Followed by the see-saw of religious preoccupation with guns - only the Catholics can have guns and then only the Protestants, followed by a reversal. Collecting guns kept a lot of English minions busy.

Over the span of a few centuries, the expectation of arms - or guns - as a personal right hardened. Given the rampant lawlessness and cheap availability of guns, the wise traveled armed.

Those who think our American 2nd Amendment is a collective right versus a personal right (a prima facia oddity given its inclusion in the Bill of Rights) will find a near mountain of evidence challenging their position in this densely researched tome.

[Frank Minich · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very readable introduction to the history of the right to bear arms, from the restoration of the British monarchy, through the Glorious Revolution, to the loss of the right in Britain in the 1920s (though I would have liked more in-depth coverage of the 'final' events).
The author emphasizes the colonists' distaste for a standing army and preference for general militia as linked to the American second amendment.
One can't help but prefer the 'written Constitution' (i.e., the American approach) to 'historic rights' (the British approach) when one sees how easy it was for Parliament to disarm the Brits.

[P. Es]

More pre-history of the 2nd Amendment.

[Mickwenlock · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are some books which are the ne plus ultra in their field. This is one of those books.

Professor Malcolm does an excellent job of tracing the history in English Law the right to bear arms for personal, home and community defense.

She traces through the journey that a "duty" took to become a "right" and lays out the importance of keeping the powers of the purse and the sword separate.

The book shows how this concept was adapted into the the Colonies with their traditions firmly in English Common Law and the ultimate appearance in the Second Amendment of the Bill of Rights.

This book was directly referenced in the SCOTUS decision in DC v Heller a landmark decision in US Law.

[Brian King · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding book, written by an academic non-gun owner non-NRA member. She goes back in time to show how important gun ownership was to the common people and their freedom. Dr. Malcolm also writes of the games that the ruling class used to not only control guns but gun powder to control the people. She writes of the recent unintended outcomes of restrictions of gun ownership on the people of the UK.

[Michael Blumenthal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written and meticulously sourced- another one of many works available that describe the logical progression of the right to bear arms. Highly recommended for anyone looking to expand their knowledge of one side of the debate apart from the partisan vitriol of politics past and present.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting. Traces the English origins of our American right to bear arms, bringing a helpful historical perspective to a contemporary issue.