Here in a newly annotated edition are the two founding documents of the United States of America: the Declaration of Independence (1776), our great revolutionary manifesto, and the Constitution (1787–88), in which “We the People” forged a new nation and built the framework for our federal republic. Together with the Bill of Rights and the Civil War amendments, these documents constitute what James Madison called our “political scriptures” and have come to define us as a people. Now a Pulitzer Prize–winning historian serves as a guide to these texts, providing historical contexts and offering interpretive commentary. In an introductory essay written for the general reader, Jack N. Rakove provides a narrative political account of how these documents came to be written. In his commentary on the Declaration of Independence, Rakove sets the historical context for a fuller appreciation of the important preamble and the list of charges leveled against the Crown. When he glosses the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the subsequent amendments, Rakove once again provides helpful historical background, targets language that has proven particularly difficult or controversial, and cites leading Supreme Court cases. A chronology of events provides a framework for understanding the road to Philadelphia. The general reader will not find a better, more helpful guide to our founding documents than Jack N. Rakove.

Product Description: What did the U.S. Constitution originally mean, and how can we recover the intentions of its framers? These questions, which resound throughout today's most heated legal and political controversies, lie at the heart of Jack N. Rakove's splendidly readable work of historical analysis...read more

Product Description: * Rather than simply celebrating the 'triumph of liberty', Jack Rakove's new history of the American Revolution will stress the ambiguous legacy of the revolution, a legacy that ranges from liberty and democracy to slavery. * Rakove will explore the complex and contested genesis of the United States, showing how the evolution was by no means inevitable and grew out the actions and interactions of many individuals, both radical and conservative, republicans, moderates and those loyal to the crown...read more

Product Description: In this inaugural volume of the Alexis de Tocqueville Lectures, political scientist James Ceaser traces the way certain ideas, including nature, history, and religion—which he calls foundational ideas—have been understood and used by statesmen and public intellectuals over the course of American history, from the Puritans to the current day...read more

In this biography, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jack Rakove examines the life of James Madison. This book explores the life and experiences of James Madison, one of the founding fathers of the United States, with a capstone chapter that looks back at Madison's legacy in modern America. For anyone interested in early American History or the life of James Madison.

A collection of essays by leading historians, political scientists, and constitutional lawyers examines the events of the 2000 election to provide a reflective assessment of its causes and outcomes. Reprint. (view table of contents)

Offers essays examining the 2000 presidential election by some of America's leading historians, constitutional lawyers, and political scientists, including Henry E. Brady, John Milton Cooper, Jr., and Pamela S. Karlan. (view table of contents)