George I. Lovell is associate professor of political science at the University of Washington. He is the author of Legislative Deferrals.

"A masterly and potentially path-breaking analysis of American 'rights talk,' a much-maligned but largely misunderstood phenomenon. Using a trove of letters written in 1939 and 1940 by ordinary Americans to the Justice Department's then-new Civil Liberties Unit, George I. Lovell shows that many of the standard claims about American rights talk are wrong; beyond the fervent hope for a rights-regulated society lies a worldly wise realism about rights' limited capacity to bring about real change." (Charles R. Epp, University of Kansas)"

George I. Lovell is associate professor of political science at the University of Washington. He is the author of Legislative Deferrals.

"A masterly and potentially path-breaking analysis of American 'rights talk,' a much-maligned but largely misunderstood phenomenon. Using a trove of letters written in 1939 and 1940 by ordinary Americans to the Justice Department's then-new Civil Liberties Unit, George I. Lovell shows that many of the standard claims about American rights talk are wrong; beyond the fervent hope for a rights-regulated society lies a worldly wise realism about rights' limited capacity to bring about real change." (Charles R. Epp, University of Kansas)"

George I. Lovell is associate professor of political science at the University of Washington. He is the author of Legislative Deferrals.

"A masterly and potentially path-breaking analysis of American 'rights talk,' a much-maligned but largely misunderstood phenomenon. Using a trove of letters written in 1939 and 1940 by ordinary Americans to the Justice Department's then-new Civil Liberties Unit, George I. Lovell shows that many of the standard claims about American rights talk are wrong; beyond the fervent hope for a rights-regulated society lies a worldly wise realism about rights' limited capacity to bring about real change." (Charles R. Epp, University of Kansas)"