America's Constitution America's Constitution

America's Constitution

A Biography

    • 4.5 • 6 Ratings
    • $10.99
    • $10.99

Publisher Description

In America’s Constitution, one of this era’s most accomplished constitutional law scholars, Akhil Reed Amar, gives the first comprehensive account of one of the world’s great political texts. Incisive, entertaining, and occasionally controversial, this “biography” of America’s framing document explains not only what the Constitution says but also why the Constitution says it.

We all know this much: the Constitution is neither immutable nor perfect. Amar shows us how the story of this one relatively compact document reflects the story of America more generally. (For example, much of the Constitution, including the glorious-sounding “We the People,” was lifted from existing American legal texts, including early state constitutions.) In short, the Constitution was as much a product of its environment as it was a product of its individual creators’ inspired genius.

Despite the Constitution’s flaws, its role in guiding our republic has been nothing short of amazing. Skillfully placing the document in the context of late-eighteenth-century American politics, America’s Constitution explains, for instance, whether there is anything in the Constitution that is unamendable; the reason America adopted an electoral college; why a president must be at least thirty-five years old; and why–for now, at least–only those citizens who were born under the American flag can become president.

From his unique perspective, Amar also gives us unconventional wisdom about the Constitution and its significance throughout the nation’s history. For one thing, we see that the Constitution has been far more democratic than is conventionally understood. Even though the document was drafted by white landholders, a remarkably large number of citizens (by the standards of 1787) were allowed to vote up or down on it, and the document’s later amendments eventually extended the vote to virtually all Americans.

We also learn that the Founders’ Constitution was far more slavocratic than many would acknowledge: the “three fifths” clause gave the South extra political clout for every slave it owned or acquired. As a result, slaveholding Virginians held the presidency all but four of the Republic’s first thirty-six years, and proslavery forces eventually came to dominate much of the federal government prior to Lincoln’s election.

Ambitious, even-handed, eminently accessible, and often surprising, America’s Constitution is an indispensable work, bound to become a standard reference for any student of history and all citizens of the United States.

GENRE
History
RELEASED
2005
September 13
LANGUAGE
EN
English
LENGTH
672
Pages
PUBLISHER
Random House Publishing Group
SELLER
Penguin Random House LLC
SIZE
10
MB

More Books Like This

Constitutional Myths Constitutional Myths
2013
Ratification Ratification
2010
The Constitutional Convention The Constitutional Convention
2018
The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Constitution The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Constitution
2007
Power and Liberty Power and Liberty
2021
The Quartet The Quartet
2015

More Books by Akhil Reed Amar

The Words That Made Us The Words That Made Us
2021
America's Unwritten Constitution America's Unwritten Constitution
2012
The Constitution Today The Constitution Today
2016
The Bill of Rights Primer The Bill of Rights Primer
2013
The Law of the Land The Law of the Land
2015

Customers Also Bought

The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787 The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787
2011
Without Precedent Without Precedent
2018
A Matter of Interpretation A Matter of Interpretation
2018
The Radicalism of the American Revolution The Radicalism of the American Revolution
1991
American Sphinx American Sphinx
1997
The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution
2019