Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

Thoroughly examining what defines rights as a citizen and as a human, this book is important in exploring the ideas of constitutional rights and civil liberties in the United States juxtaposed with other government systems. The prose was a bit difficult to get through (hence my months-long struggle with the book), but the concepts and ideas were interesting to mull over. This would be a great book to include in a U.S. History or Government course for high school or undergrad.

HOW RIGHTS WENT WRONG by Jamal Greene, Dwight Professor of Law at Columbia Law School, provides a rather complex and technical discussion of "Why Our Obsession with Rights Is Tearing America Apart." Greene argues that in "striving to take rights seriously, we take them too literally;" that today's society is so much more interconnected than the agrarian one of the Founders and we tend to make the "grave mistake" of identifying rights, but simultaneously ignore context. He points, for example, to rulings about abortion where "either women had constitutional rights or fetuses did. There was no middle ground, no room for compromise or negotiation." Greene looks especially at white supremacy, systemic racism, and judicial decisions with an entire part of the book titled "No Justice, No Peace." He devotes later chapters to disability, affirmative action, and campus speech which are of interest to our students. Overall, however, I think Greene's detailed analysis would be rather difficult for them to follow and digest. In her introduction, Jill Lepore describes HOW RIGHTS WENT WRONG as "Essential and fresh and vital." Legal professionals and more sophisticated readers may still find much to ponder.

This book provides excellent examples and a thorough examination of rights, laws, and society. This book is great for people interested in the law and how laws impact society. However, those who do not like the delve into the nity-gritty might not like this book.

Not a huge fan of this book. I found parts of it interesting but found it to be a little self serving in its approach. I feel that the author didn't do quite enough research or didn't delve into the points they addressed like they should have.

This is an interesting take looking at the identities in culture, given that our identity and what we attach ourselves to helps shape our perceptions and experiences in the world but it was very much written as an opinion piece. I enjoyed the book but didn't agree with everything the author wrote about or at least how it was framed. It was an easy interesting read though and there were a lot of good points.

Interesting Yet Ultimately Self-Serving Take On Rights. This book presents as an interesting and novel (at least in an American sense) take on rights - namely, that they are not absolute and should be mediated by government actions. Greene claims that this would ultimately result in less polarization, though he seems to ignore large swaths of what has led to the polarization currently facing America when making such claims. Still, even though blatantly written from a leftist perspective, the book mostly presents its theory in a reasonably well-reasoned approach and thus adds enough to the overall conversation that it should be considered. Ultimately, though, it becomes clear that Greene's entire premise of mediated rights is less a matter of principle or proposing a novel theory or (as he claims) more aligning American jurisprudence with that of much of the rest of the world and much more about defending Big Academia's right to discriminate against the disabled and against certain races, and to control speech in a totalitarian manner. It is this realization - very blatant in the closing chapters, particularly when discussing Affirmative Action and campus speech codes - that ultimately considerably detracts from the overall merit of the proposal, and thus dramatically weakens the entire argument. Recommended.

A fascinating example of a book I didn't know I needed to read until I started. Even understanding the start of the rights movement was a revelation because all extreme movements from ancient Phariseeism to femanism start off extreme, often because they have to. But eventually the need to adapt, and move from extremism to compromise or mediation - just so we can live together.

But framing something as a right every time you don't get your way is causing serious problems... Because now expressing a dissenting opinion is violating someone's rights!

I haven't read all the book yet but what I've read so far is a healthy and robust start. I'd love to go to a lecture by Jamal 😁