Captain Charles Boycott has the particular fame of having his name turned into a word for the thing that was done to him. The story of County Mayo in 1880 is also the story of what the tactic is, and why a collective, nonviolent withdrawal of cooperation works, the same machinery that would later carry Montgomery.

Field Notes on the Republic was written and read by Michael Fowler. It was produced for Quorum (Supply Co.), an American civic purveyor. Music is "When Johnny Comes Marching Home," performed by the U.S. Military Academy Band, West Point.

An earlier essay treated judicial review as a cornerstone. This one makes the case against it, the real argument, anchored in Alexander Bickel's counter-majoritarian difficulty: that unelected, life-tenured judges overruling elected legislatures is not obviously compatible with self-government. A citizen is better off knowing the strongest case against a power, even one they support.

Field Notes on the Republic was written and read by Michael Fowler. It was produced for Quorum (Supply Co.), an American civic purveyor. Music is "When Johnny Comes Marching Home," performed by the U.S. Military Academy Band, West Point.

When the First Amendment was ratified in 1791, the press was not a profession. It was a machine. Recovering the original meaning of the word changes what the freedom is and who holds it: not a guild privilege for credentialed journalists, but the right of anyone who uses the means of mass communication to reach the public.

Field Notes on the Republic was written and read by Michael Fowler. It was produced for Quorum (Supply Co.), an American civic purveyor. Music is "When Johnny Comes Marching Home," performed by the U.S. Military Academy Band, West Point.