Holding Together: The Hijacking of Rights in America and How to Reclaim Them for Everyone

Political scientists Shattuck (Freedom on Fire), Raman (coauthor, The Coming Good Society), and Risse, colleagues at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University, deliver an accessible survey of the struggle to “realize the promise of equal rights” in America. Contending that progress made in expanding rights to marginalized groups has always been met with backlash, the authors draw a direct line from slave patrols to the Red Summer of 1919 to modern-day police brutality and mass incarceration. They also connect recent Republican efforts to pass voting restrictions that “have disproportionately impacted... people of color, the poor, and foreign-born citizens” to voter suppression campaigns in the Jim Crow–era South. Elsewhere, the authors delve into the use of social media to sow discord and misinformation and the challenges inherent in protecting freedom of speech while preventing violent incidents like the January 6 Capitol riot. Their policy recommendations include restoring the Voting Rights Act, eliminating cash bail, and promoting media literacy programs. Though they break little new ground, the authors make salient connections between the past and the present and issue a cogent call for Americans to unite over their shared belief in the importance of individual rights. This is a lucid primer on many of today’s most pressing political and social issues. (May)