
Stand Your Ground
A History of America's Love Affair with Lethal Self-Defense
$42.02
- Paperback
256 pages
- Release Date
17 March 2026
Summary
A history of America’s Stand Your Ground gun laws, from Reconstruction to Trayvon Martin.
After a young, white gunman killed twenty-six people at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012, conservative legislators lamented that the tragedy could have been avoided if the schoolteachers had been armed and the classrooms equipped with guns. Similar claims were repeated in the aftermath of other recent shootings—after nine were killed in a church in Charleston…
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780807024324 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 0807024325 |
| Author: | Caroline Light |
| Publisher: | Beacon Press |
| Imprint: | Beacon Press |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Number of Pages: | 256 |
| Release Date: | 17 March 2026 |
| Weight: | 369g |
| Dimensions: | 152mm x 229mm |

You Can Find This Book In
Critics Review
“Light’s readable account deserves strong notice by those seeking understanding of the roots of today’s polarizing debate over gun laws.”
—Booklist
“A powerful new book … Studded with striking statistics and sobering facts.”
—The Boston Globe
“Timely and sharp, and a potent antidote to historical amnesia. Light reminds us that these defenses are as old as the republic; they have always protected those with privilege and jeopardized those at the margins.”
—Mark Anthony Neal, author of New Black Man
“A profound reflection on belonging and exclusion in American society. Essential reading.”
—Elizabeth Hinton, award-winning author of From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime
Caroline Light
Caroline Light is director of undergraduate studies in the Program in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Harvard University. She is the author of That Pride of Race and Character: The Roots of Jewish Benevolence in the Jim Crow South.
Returns
This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.



