Engines of Liberty summary

Of course, Vermont isn’t the only state with activists fighting for civil rights. In California, the debate over gay marriage was sparked in 2004, when the mayor of San Francisco, Gavin Newsom, began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, even though they weren’t legally recognized.

Years of activism followed in order to make these marriages valid. Even though California has long been a haven for gay people, the issue proved difficult to resolve.

After Vermont and California, other states began voting on the issue of gay marriage, including Maryland, where it became legal in 2013.

That year, John Arthur was living in Ohio with his partner James Obergefell. Since Arthur was dying from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and gay marriage wasn’t legal in their state, the couple traveled to Maryland to get married.

1968 was a tragic year in the United States. Both Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King were shot and killed that year, and, in response, the government issued the Gun Control Act, which limited the sale of mail-order guns. But activists have been fighting for looser gun laws ever since, and they have found that the state of Florida is especially supportive of their cause.

The strong support for the pro-gun movement in Florida is due, in no small part to the influence of the National Rifle Association (NRA) and lobbyist Marion Hammer, who was once the organization’s first female president. Hammer is now 76 years old and she never leaves her Florida home without her trusty Smith & Wesson .38 caliber handgun tucked away in her purse.

You’re probably familiar with what happened at Pearl Harbor in 1941; there have been countless books and movies covering every detail of the Japanese attack on the US military base.

Less known are the details of what happened to Japanese people who were living in the United States at the time and how the racially prejudiced actions that followed were supported by the Supreme Court.

Unfortunately, human right violations during times of war didn’t stop with World War II. And when the horrible details about how US soldiers were mistreating inmates at the Abu Ghraib prison began to leak out in 2003, activists were once again essential to actualizing change.

Central to their fight for human rights was a call for more transparency in government operations.   

Even though President Obama’s election campaign promised hope and change, there were still practices during his administration that kept activists busy.

One of the most prominent fights involved President Obama’s support of a secret program to use remote-controlled drones to attack and kill enemy targets.