The Magna Carta Manifesto

by Linebaugh, Peter

• ISBN13: 9780520260009
• ISBN10: 0520260007
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-06-01
• Publisher: Univ of California Pr

Summary

This remarkable book shines a fierce light on the current state of liberty and shows how longstanding restraints against tyranny--and the rights of habeas corpus, trial by jury, and due process of law, and the prohibition of torture--are being abridged. In providing a sweeping history of Magna Carta, the source of these protections since 1215, this powerful book demonstrates how these ancient rights are repeatedly laid aside when the greed of privatization, the lust for power, and the ambition of empire seize a state. Peter Linebaugh draws on primary sources to construct a wholly original history of the Great Charter and its scarcely-known companion, the Charter of the Forest, which was created at the same time to protect the subsistence rights of the poor.

Table of Contents

Illustrations

Preface

Introduction

Two Charters

The Commodity and the Commons

Charters Lost and Found

The Charters in Blackface and Whiteface

1776 and Runnamede

The Law of the Jungle

Magna Carta and the U.S. Supreme Court

Icon and Idol

This Land Was Made by You and Me

The Constitution of the Commons

Conclusion

Magna Carta 2

The Charter of the Forest

Glossary

Further Reading

Index

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.