The Bill of Obligations: The Ten Habits of Good Citizens
By Richard Haass
In The Bill of Obligations, Council on Foreign Relations President and New York Times best-selling author Dr. Richard Haass offers a provocative guide to how we must reenvision citizenship if American democracy is to survive.
The Bill of Rights is at the center of our Constitution, yet our most intractable conflicts often emerge from contrasting views as to what our rights ought to be. As former Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer pointed out, “Many of our cases, the most difficult ones, are not about right versus wrong. They are about right versus right.” The lesson is clear: rights alone cannot provide the basis for a functioning, much less flourishing, democracy.
Haass offers a cure: to place obligations on the same footing as rights. The ten obligations that Haass introduces here are essential for healing our divisions and safeguarding the country’s future. These obligations reenvision what it means to be an American citizen. They are not a burden but rather commitments that we can make to fellow citizens and to the government to uphold democracy and counter the growing apathy, anger, selfishness, division, disinformation and violence that threaten us all. Through an expert blend of civics, history and political analysis, this book illuminates how Americans can rediscover and recover the attitudes and behaviors that have contributed so much to this country’s success over the centuries.
Join us each month to discuss a pre-selected book presenting a foreign policy topic. First Wednesday of each month (12pm).
We are proud to partner with the Loudoun County Public Library who makes available multiple copies of this book for checkout at the Rust Library.