To Keep and Bear Arms: The Origins of an Anglo-American Right
Joyce Malcolm's book reminds us forcibly that arguments for gun ownership were, until quite recently, respectable and persuasive, and that gun control and peaceable behaviour appear to be unrelated phenomena. (David WoottonLondon Review of Books)A work of genuine excellence, as persuasive in its argument as it is unsettling in its implications...Malcolm's prose is both vigorous and elegant, and occasionally even witty, a virtue rarely to be found in a constitutional treatise. The book should generate a healthy debate about the future of gun control in America. (Douglas R. EgertonAmerican Historical Review)A wide audience, including social scientists, historians, lawyers, and anyone interested in the gun-ownership debate, should welcome this concise, well-written history. (Allan D. OlmstedContemporary Sociology)[Malcolm] provides a skillful analysis of how the Englishmen's duty to bear arms was transformed into a right to bear arms. (Robert E. ShalhopeJournal of American History)