The Alchemy of Race and Rights Chapter Summary & Analysis - Part I, Excluding Voices, a Necklace of Thoughts on the Ideology of Style, Chapter 2, Gilded Lilies and Liberal Guilt Summary

Part I, Excluding Voices, a Necklace of Thoughts on the Ideology of Style, Chapter 2, Gilded Lilies and Liberal Guilt Summary and Analysis

Williams's work concerns the line between contract and communion or the division between the commercial and the community, between the legitimate and the illegitimate. She believes that parts of the social contract in the United States involve social control through an ahistorical American symbolism that understands freedom in an abstract way. Private contract rights illustrate this point. Freedom of contract is often seen as a simple, straightforward freedom, as an express of a "will" theory of rights where choice determines the rights we have. Williams is not wholeheartedly against the will theory but wants it to be expressed through community will as well.

William's interest in property law comes from her family history. She recently comes into possession of the contract of sale for her great-great-grandmother. She often imagines herself in her ancestor's shoes, which leads her to think hard about the interplay between family and the market. Some examples...
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