With fascinating detailed portraits of the Framers, we are taken behind the scenes into the fiery debates between powerful personalities and the hard-fought battles and compromises that resulted in one of the most important documents in history. Drawing on original sources and a wealth of secondary works and recent scholarship, updated entries and dozens of illuminating side boxes present a comprehensive treatment of all aspects of the Constitutional Convention.
Features include: - Two chronologies: day-to-day events at the Convention and important dates leading up to it - Detailed individual profiles of the delegates and excerpts from accounts of their debates - Information that brings the events of the Convention to life, such as the delegates' salaries, housing, daily schedule, how appointed, their backgrounds, their personal and legislative motivations, the mechanism of how the Convention and its committees worked - How the creation of states, their legislations, plans and constitutions all contributed to the final document - Analysis of Convention discussion of dominant historical and philosophical influences and themes and how and why they were included in the Constitution - A thorough appendix containing original documents and text of important speeches.
These two volumes provide a complete guide to a pivotal moment in the formation of the United States - the Constitutional Convention - that created one of the most important documents in history, the United States Constitution. JOHN R. VILE Ph. His recent books include The Writing and Ratification of the U. A summary of the history of the commonwealth's constitution-making and a section-by-section analysis of the current constitution of the State of Kentucky.
Discussion of the history and purpose of each section, together with leading judicial interpretations, enables readers to understand a document that has become the source of rights not found in the federal constitution. Kentuckians have written four constitutions since statehood commenced in Drafters of the first charter borrowed heavily from the Pennsylvania Constitution of , but the writers of subsequent documents drew substantially from the experiences of state government.
The delegates to the convention which wrote the current Constitution especially responded to perceived deficiencies of the legislature, which was regarded as incapable or unwilling to remedy some of the most serious problems facing the commonwealth.
For that reason the drafters inserted in the charter specific legislative mandates and prohibitions in a detail that more resembled a statutory code than a constitution. This specificity might have undermined the utility of the constitution in a modern society had not the framers also provided an amendment process that has allowed essential streamlining and modernizing.
Ironically, the oldest part of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, has been the source of some of the boldest judicial interpretations that have fashioned rights not recognized by the U. Supreme Court in the federal Constitution. The country, it seems, is on the wrong track. But what is the right course for America? Knowing what we stand against is not the same as knowing what we stand for.
Just in time, Matthew Spalding provides the plan for translating angst into proper action in this bestselling book. We Still Hold These Truths offers a bracing analysis of how and why we have lost our bearings as a nation and lays out the strategy to rescue our future from arbitrary and unlimited government.
The Introduction includes comparative tables; the Appendix contains the U. The first ten amendments to the Constitution of the United States, our eighteenth-century statements of fundamental rights, continue to guide the administration of justice and shaping of public policy in today's world of rapid communication and complex technology. The volume's twelve historical essays by expert scholars illuminate contemporary life by describing the major elements of the Bill of Rights in terms that readers can understand and appreciate.
Conservatives and the Constitution Author : Ken I. Kersch Publisher : Cambridge University Press Release Date : Genre: Law Pages : null ISBN 10 : GET BOOK Conservatives and the Constitution Book Description : Since the s, a ritualized opposition in legal thought between a conservative 'originalism' and a liberal 'living constitutionalism' has obscured the aggressively contested tradition committed to, and mobilization of arguments for, constitutional restoration and redemption within the broader postwar American conservative movement.
Barbara Oberg, director of The Papers of Thomas Jefferson at Princeton University, said, 'Founders Online is a significant step toward making the nation's cultural patrimony freely available to the American citizenry. But to make Founders Online possible at all, it has taken the expertise, hard work, and dedication of the editorial teams behind the effort. The new web site will be built on a half-century of work by documentary editors—the tireless scholars who collected, transcribed, annotated, indexed, and published the original papers.
The possibilities for new discoveries are endless. Teachers will be able to call up primary source material in the history classroom in the blink of an eye.
Students and scholars will have the ability to home in on key concepts and search across all six collections, not only by simple word searches but by terms assigned in the indexing process and through editorial annotations.
For example, the Founders' views on slavery might be assembled in a single set of search results in which many of the original documents do not use the word at all. Or one might collect all the correspondence between Adams and Jefferson along with their contemporaries' views on each man and create a richer portrait on their fraught relationship. Or one might trace the Founders' letters and diaries and debates leading up to the Constitutional Convention, their thoughts during the meetings in Philadelphia, the ratification of the Constitution by the states, and how the Washington administration, first Congress, and first Supreme Court implemented the grand experiment.
The Founders Online continues that experiment in democracy by making freely available in one place the original words of the original statesmen. Although it holds only a small portion of the primary source material, the National Archives is an ideal home for this collection. In the same Act of Congress creating the National Archives in , there was language establishing a National Historical Publications Commission designed to publish the most important documents of our history, whether or not those papers were in the stewardship of the government.
The Commission augments the work of the National Archives and creates a way for partnerships to be created with other archives in the nation to help tell the American story. In announcing the creation of the Founders Online, David S. Ferriero, Archivist of the United States, said that having these papers online will better inform current-day debates over the meaning of our founding documents. And we can only express our gratitude for the effort of dedicated editors and scholars to create this work, a national monument to the founding of our nation.
The great minds who fiercely debated the founding of our country—Franklin, Washington, Hamilton, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison—rarely agreed together on public policy for the new nation, though they were unanimous in support of the principles and underlying idea of America. Now today's best minds will have the chance to contrast and compare the Founders' words and ideas through a communications medium that none could foresee, though all would acknowledge it as a democratizing force.
The words of the Founders belong online, where people across the country and around the world can freely read and wonder at their wisdom. I have many reasons to believe that it is the work of plain, honest men. A selection of speeches by the most inspiring and persuasive orators in American history Penguin presents a series of six portable, accessible, and—above all—essential reads from American political history, selected by leading scholars.
American Political Speeches includes the best American rhetoric from inside and outside the White House. Some of the greatest words spoken in American history have come from men and women who lacked the biggest bully pulpit in the country, but who nevertheless were able to move the nation with words. Frederick Douglass explained the irony of Independence Day from the perspective of a slave.
Martin Luther King, Jr. William Jennings Bryan gave voice to social discontent with a single phrase, "a cross of gold. And the best presidents, not by coincidence, have tended to be those with an appreciation for the use of language: Lincoln explaining a new birth of freedom at Gettysburg; John Kennedy voicing moral outrage at the Berlin Wall; Franklin D. Roosevelt chatting to a nation gathered in front of radios; Ronald Reagan addressing Congress freshly healed from an assassination attempt.
Those stories are known by few today. He shows their rise. He shows their fall. And he makes vividly clear how nearly every abuse of federal power today is rooted in neglect of this Lost Constitution. Fortunately, the Constitution has always had its defenders. Senator Lee tells the story of how Andrew Jackson, noted for his courage in duels and politics, stood firm against the unconstitutional expansion of federal powers.
Drawing on his experience working in all three branches of government, Senator Lee makes a bold case for resurrecting the Lost Constitution to restore and defend our fundamental liberties.
The defining rhetoric of Abraham Lincoln — politician, president, and emancipator Penguin presents a series of six portable, accessible, and—above all—essential reads from American political history, selected by leading scholars. As president, Abraham Lincoln endowed the American language with a vigor and moral energy that have all but disappeared from today's public rhetoric.
His words are testaments of our history, windows into his enigmatic personality, and resonant examples of the writer's art. Guelzo brings together this volume of Lincoln Speeches that span the classic and obscure, the lyrical and historical, the inspirational and intellectual. The book contains everything from classic speeches that any citizen would recognize—the first debate with Stephen Douglas, the "House Divided" Speech, the Gettysburg Address, the Second Inaugural Address—to the less known ones that professed Lincoln fans will come to enjoy and intellectuals and critics praise.
These orations show the contours of the civic dilemmas Lincoln, and America itself, encountered: the slavery issue, state v. Both enshrining the fundamental rights and freedoms of its citizens in law, and curbing the power of those who rule them, the US constitution is one of the most significant documents in the history of democracy. From abortion to same-sex marriage, today's most urgent political debates will hinge on this two-part question: What did the United States Constitution originally mean and who now understands its meaning best?
Rakove chronicles the Constitution from inception to ratification and, in doing so, traces its complex weave of ideology and interest, showing how this document has meant different things at different times to different groups of Americans. One of the most revered, imitated, and controversial governmental documents in the world, the U.
Constitution serves as the foundation for the American government and shapes the lives of Americans every day. Yet, how many of us know its history and the impact it has on guiding our ever evolving nation? Idiot's Guides: The U. Constitution, Second Edition, provides you a clear look at the one single document that defines America.
Following the United States Declaration of Independence in , the governing doctrines and policies of the States lacked cohesion. Hamilton recruited fellow statesmen James Madison Jr. Alexander Hamilton c. His contributions to the Constitution and leadership made a significant and lasting impact on the early development of the nation of the United States.
Debates over constitutional rights impact you every day as an American citizen. But do you know what the U. Constitution actually says? This accessible guide contains the complete text of the Constitution, with short, descriptive margin notes throughout. Articles and amendments are then analyzed in depth to help you comprehend the basis of democracy. This valuable handbook covers: How the articles and amendments were drafted Insight into the intentions of the creators and the sources they used Controversial interpretations and Supreme Court decisions How the Constitution affects citizens every day The Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and unratified Constitutional amendments This book walks you through the history of this essential document and shows how it has guided lawmakers and judges for more than years.
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