Product Description: “Either the Constitution means what it says, or it doesn’t.”America’s founding fathers considered liberty a basic part of our nature—something to be guarded, not usurped by the federal government. As a result, they enshrined separation of powers and guarantees of freedom in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights...read more

Product Description: Widely acclaimed at the time of its publication, the life story of the most controversial, volatile, misunderstood provision of the Bill of Rights.At a time of increasing gun violence in America, Waldman’s book provoked a wide range of discussion...read more

Product Description: The United States is among the wealthiest nations in the world. But that wealth hasn't translated to a higher life expectancy, an area where the United States still ranks thirty-eighth—behind Cuba, Chile, Costa Rica, and Greece, among many others...read more

Product Description: The first paperback edition of a classic of American constitutional theory. The book is divided into two parts. In Part I Professor Tushnet appraises the five major competing “grand theories” of constitutional law and interpretation, and, argues that none of them satisfy their own requirements for coherence and judicial constraint...read more

Product Description: In the Supreme Court's 2008 ruling on whether Guantanamo detainees could be barred from U.S. courts, Justice Anthony Kennedy cited the U.S. Constitution, of course. But he also linked the decision to the Magna Carta. Why would a twenty-first century judge,even under the extraordinary circumstances of the "war on terror," invoke a document signed by an English king in the thirteenth century? To address this question, as Robert Pallitto does in this clarifying book, is to probe the history of modern civil liberties, and to explore the process by which judges decide individual rights cases...read more

Product Description: This book reconnects The Federalist Papers to the study of American politics and political development, arguing that the papers contain previously unrecognized theory of institutional power, a theory that enlarges and refines the contribution of the papers to political theory, but also reconnects the papers to the study of American politics...read more

Product Description: In Natural Law and the Antislavery Constitutional Tradition, Justin Buckley Dyer provides a succinct account of the development of American antislavery constitutionalism in the years preceding the Civil War. Within the context of recent revisionist scholarship, Dyer argues that the theoretical foundations of American constitutionalism - which he identifies with principles of natural law - were antagonistic to slavery...read more

Product Description: Today, most Americans lack constitutional rights on the job. Instead of enjoying free speech or privacy, they can be fired for almost any reason or no reason at all. This book uses history to explain why. It takes readers back to the 1930s and 1940s when advocates across the political spectrum - labor leaders, civil rights advocates, and conservatives opposed to government regulation - set out to enshrine constitutional rights in the workplace...read more

Product Description: Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Edward J. Larson recovers a crucially important--yet almost always overlooked--chapter of George Washington's life, revealing how Washington saved the United States by coming out of retirement to lead the Constitutional Convention and serve as our first president...read more

[Read by Mark Bramhall]In this revelatory new look at our first citizen, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Edward J. Larson masterfully chronicles how George Washington saved the United States by coming out of retirement four years after the Revolution to lead and unite the struggling new nation. Though the period between the Revolution and the presidency has previously been neglected in studies of Washington's life, Larson's startling reassessment shows that Washington's greatness in fact rests on these years - 1783 to 1789 - during which he completed a remarkable journey that secured the future of the nation. From a contented postmilitary life at Mount Vernon and his agonizing decision to return to public service; to his indispensable, though still underappreciated role in shaping the Constitution and securing its ratification; to his victory in the first federal elections and his inauguration in New York, The Return of George Washington is a landmark work that rightfully elevates our foremost Founding Father's ''forgotten years'' to a central place in the American story.After commanding the Continental Army to victory in the Revolutionary War, General George Washington shocked the world: he retired. In December 1783, Washington, the most powerful and popular man in the country, stepped down as commander-in-chief and returned to private life as a gentleman farmer. Yet as Washington found happiness in successfully growing his Virginia estate, the fledgling American experiment foundered. Under the Articles of Confederation, the states bickered and grew apart, debts accumulated, national security was neglected, and the economy faltered.When a Constitutional Convention was called to forge a new government, its chances of success were slim. Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and other leaders realized only one American could unite the fractious states. After months of anguish, Washington - reluctant but duty bound - answered the call and rode from his beloved Mount Vernon to Philadelphia in the summer of 1787 to preside over the convention. Although Washington is curiously overlooked in most accounts of the Constitution, Larson brilliantly uncovers Washington's vital role in shaping the convention - and shows how it was only with Washington's support and influence that the delegates passed, and the states later ratified, the Constitution that has guided our government to this day.

Product Description: AMERICA , THIS IS YOU R ROAD MAP TO THE FUTURE—A RETURN TO THE GUIDIN G PRINCI PLES OF OU R FOUNDIN G FATHERS . . . The United States is at a crossroads. Our national debt is rising, our social programs are unsustainable, and our government is expanding at an alarming rate...read more

Product Description: Their names linger in memory mainly as punch lines, synonyms for obscurity: Millard Fillmore, Chester Arthur, Calvin Coolidge. They conjure up not the White House so much as a decaying middle school somewhere in New Jersey. But many forgotten presidents, writes Michael J...read more

Product Description: This book is the most comprehensive review of all the major proposals to rewrite, revise, or even replace the U.S. Constitution, covering more than 170 proposals from the nation's beginnings to the present day.• Discusses more than 170 proposed major alterations in―or alternatives to―the U...read more

Product Description: This book relays the factual details of the creation of the U.S. Constitution. The narrative provides multiple accounts of the event, and readers learn details through the point of view of a serving girl at a Pennsylvania boardinghouse, a law clerk in the state of Virginia, and an apprentice printer...read more

Product Description: Uncovering the Roots of the U.S. ConstitutionAmerica’s Constitution did not spring up suddenly in 1787. The framers were influenced at every turn by a tradition of constitutional development dating back to ancient times. That constitutional heritage passes almost unnoticed today—despite the fact that it has influenced legislators, judges, statesmen, and scholars for more than two hundred years...read more

Product Description: Although Populist candidate William Jennings Bryan lost the presidential elections of 1896, 1900, and 1908, he was the most influential political figure of his era. In this astutely argued book, Gerard N. Magliocca explores how Bryan's effort to reach the White House energized conservatives across the nation and caused a transformation in constitutional law...read more