Rights at Risk: The Limits of Liberty in Modern America Hardcover - 2012

Media reviews

“Fascinating . . . Monumental . . . Shipler is particularly good at weaving together legal history and personal storytelling.”
            -Richard McGill Murphy, Fortune
 
“Shipler doesn’t mince words or shy away from the hard issues . . . The writing is precise, interesting, and frequently moving . . . His coverage, concreteness, and willingness to candidly take on the range of issues make this a terrific book for anyone interested in our rights and liberties.”
            -David Kairys, Philadelphia Inquirer
 
“There are many books about the stories behind Supreme Court cases. Shipler’s distinctive contribution is the thoroughness and originality of his reporting.”
            -Jeffrey Rosen, The Washington Post
 
“Fascinating and provocative . . . This book is a must for readers who want to stay informed of their rights in the shadowy territory where the government’s need for order and security overstep constitutional protections.”
            -Starred review, Publishers Weekly
 
“Well-reported . . . No matter the issue, Shipler humanizes the discussion throughout, linking each topic to stories of real people silenced, marginalized, neglected, bullied, even brutalized by a government that should know better.”
            -Kirkus
 
“An eye-opening and troubling look at failures in the criminal justice system that put at risk the rights of all citizens.”
            -Booklist
 
“David Shipler's important new book powerfully reminds us that our constitutional rights are little more than words on paper if we fail to take them seriously when it's inconvenient or even painful to do so.”
            -Linda Greenhouse, author of Becoming Justice Blackmun
 
“David Shipler’s Rights at Risk is simply a wonderful book. It lays out, more powerfully than anything else I have read, how our constitutional rights have been whittled away in recent years—by presidents and judges and police chiefs. All in the name of national security or safe streets. More than a cry in the night, it is a careful, intensely researched account of a dangerous trend that not enough of us have noticed. Not just law, it is human drama.”
            -Anthony Lewis, author of Gideon’s Trumpet
 
“In Rights at Risk, Shipler continues his project of showing us how the constitutional rights we exalt in theory are being undermined in practice. This masterful and illuminating book reports how our criminal justice system frequently omits the justice, and how we are not as free to speak out to and against the government as we might like to think. The Constitution needs our help to survive, and reading this book is a valuable first step to reclaiming our fundamental values of fairness and equality for ourselves and for future generations.”
            -Susan Herman, President of American Civil Liberties Union and author of Taking Liberties

“Shipler argues that although a basic knowledge of the Bill of Rights by all citizens is not possible to achieve, we need to maintain a robust ‘Constitutional culture.’ By reading this book and discussing it with others, you will be doing your part.”
            -Portland Book Review