Word: historians
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...ritualized opening is a reminder of the enduring roles of British tradition, of the monarchy and of the two houses of Parliament. All contribute to an unwritten constitution etched in customs and laws but not contained in a single document. The constitution has evolved in this way, says Historian Philip Norton, because, since the Norman invasion in 1066, there has been no point at which the system "has been completely swept away, allowing those in power to sit down and create from first principles a new and clearly delineated form of government...
...continent's 53 states have only one political party, and 27 African nations are under military rule. Countries ranging from Guinea in West Africa to Somalia in the east have gone so far as to declare dissent a treasonable crime that can be punished by death. Notes British Historian Lord Blake: "The political tradition in many parts of Africa is authoritarian, and that's what has taken over...
...democratic principles at risk here are every bit as serious as the health issues," notes Michigan's Osborn. Agrees Dr. David Musto, a medical historian at Yale: "We need to deal with these issues now while we can still be somewhat rational about them. This is the calm before the hurricane...
...text of the framers, the more fluid interpretation of the courts and a sort of glowing gas perceived by the public. That last Constitution, misquoted, rhapsodized over and construed to endorse the passions of the moment, is the subject of this imaginative book by a Pulitzer-prizewinning Cornell University historian, Michael Kammen. Kammen rummages through two centuries of sources, including news clippings, speeches, textbooks and public opinion polls, to gauge how Americans have regarded their own charter of government...
Pulitzer-Prizewinning Historian Michael Kammen (Children of Paradox) at the University of Louisville: You must keep in mind that the meaning of personal liberty has altered repeatedly over time, in part because the concept is not explicitly mentioned in the U.S. Constitution. Insofar as it has variously meant liberty of conscience, opposition to chattel slavery, freedom from physical restraint, freedom of political association, freedom from surveillance where no threat to the state is involved, and a right to privacy that includes control over one's body, it has drawn upon both of the great traditions of liberty in the history...