As vitally important as the Bill of Rights is, how well do we understand it? Here Linda Monk recounts its history as she explores it amendment by amendment, tracing the Supreme Court's interpretation of each right. Stories of the ordinary people who made the Bill of Rights come alive are featured throughout, including Fannie Lou Hamer, a Mississippi sharecropper who became a national civil rights leader; Clarence Earl Gideon, a prisoner whose handwritten petition to the Supreme Court expanded the right to counsel; and Mary Beth Tinker, a 13-year-old whose protest of the Vietnam War established free speech rights for students. Fittingly, Ruth Bader Ginsburg provides the foreword.