Book 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.
Customer Reviews:
Many interesting insights.......2007-09-22
Although there are some tedious places, the book has a number of very valuable and interesting insights - especially the topics of the Second Amendment, the Eleventh Amendment, and the "privileges and immunities" clause stood out for me. He does a good job interweaving historical context and the text of the document. There are some unexpected emphases and omissions:for example, it emphasizes slavery more often and more heavily than I expected for an issue that was resolved 140 years ago, and there was a little less on the Bill of Rights and on executive power than I was expecting, although those are more contemporary issues. His chapter on the path, pre-Civil War to the 13th amendment, was terrifically concise but there is very little discussion on the issue of habeas corpus during the war. These aren't complaints, just notifications; overall it was very stimulating. Like most constitutional scholars, he has some outside-the-box interpretations that are obviously developed to accomplish a particular outcome but these are fruitful to reflect on as well.
Leaves no stone unturned.. buy it NOW........2007-09-04
What an absolutely fantastic reference! Much of this book's praise has been sung by previous reviewers, but I'd like to add that I especially appreciate Amar's powerful paradoxes and equally profound "what-ifs." Buy the man's book so he blesses all of our futures with even more jewels of his erudition.
We the People love this Book!.......2007-07-01
This book is at once a very scholarly and entirely accesible history of the US Constitution and 27 Amendments. It can be read by pretty much anybdy, without any revious knowledge of the law or history required. Reed prevides the reader with an engaging story, as well as giving an ample number of endnotes that add extra insight and pieces of information to the reader.
A must-read for anyone interested in the Constitution.......2007-03-03
It took me two or three months to slog through this book, but I'm very glad I did. As a young adult who is very interested in politics and the foundation of this country, I found this book to contain great insight into why things are the way they are. I find myself referring to it constantly.
brilliant.......2007-01-06
this may sound like an unusual confession, but, i found it very difficult to put this book down. amar does an excellent job of helping us understand the history and political factors prevalent in the drafting and ratification of the constitution and amendments. he accomplishes the task of helping us to better understand some of the thinking of the days, by the drafters and american people. he writes in a clear style, intriguing the reader. while i am in no way a constitutional law expert, i can say that he probably did get all of his facts accurate - he only had 3 typos throughout the entire book (that i could identify). given the millions of pages of documents available to the expert on u.s. constitutional law and history, amar synthesizes the material brilliantly. i'm ashamed, although frankly grateful, that i was able to delight in reading this great work for such an affordable price and i would have found it an excellent resource at 3x the price! i wish that such a work were recommended reading for all of us.
Book Description
This book examines both the constitutional jurisprudence of Supreme Court justice Louis D. Brandeis and one of his most famous and controversial opinions, Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins (1938). This landmark decision led to a significant relocation of power from federal to state courts, and, says the author, it provides a window on the legal, political, and ideological battles over the federal courts in the New Deal era and after.
Book Description
The earthshaking news of October 1998 that General Pinochet had been arrested in Britain presaged two years of international interest in the case and its ramifications for traveling tyrants the world over. Now the General has returned home, but the media has continued to ignore the important story of how his detention lifted a stranglehold that had suffocated Chile's moral sensibility for a generation. Award-winning journalist Marc Cooper was a translator to President Allende until the coup of 1973. In this memoir he reconstructs the tense atmosphere of the final days of the Allende government, including his hiding and subsequent evacuation under armed UN protection. Twenty-five years later he returns and describes, in vivid street-level reporting, a country that is a democracy in name only and a society that has been transfigured by one of the most radical, armed capitalist revolutions of our time. Yet, he argues, spasms of protest that seemed like the last rattle of the snake may still presage the crumbling of Chile's status quo as Allende's heirs in the Socialist Party, albeit "renewed," sweep into the Presidency.
Customer Reviews:
READ ABOUT THE REAL 9/11 in 1973: HOW NIXON KILLED A DEMOCRACY.......2006-07-08
this book is essential reading for us as we reflect upon our own global piracy which now continues under a new illegitimate administration. Marc Cooper is an excellent author and reporter of truth, courageous in speaking truth to power. THis book should be required reading in any social studies and history class. This is our history of terror and domination. The bombing of the Presidential mansion in Chile 9/11/73 and our destruction of a society and the torture and assassination of thousands of innocent people and exile of thousands more through the brutal fascist military dictator Pinochet, and our continuance of such policy, must chill the blood and mind of any American concerned for truth justice and social progress of all people, which is the true American and Christian way.
UPDATE 2007:
Pinochet is dead and now people go around claiming, well, he only killed a couple of thousand people after all. It was only a couple of thousand on OUR 9/11, too, right?
Please get the truth. Get this book by Marc Cooper. We need to study this very readable and informative and TRUE account now, more than ever.
Cooper Vs Ignorance.......2004-11-13
Many of the reviewers below me point out that Pinochet strengthened the economy in Chile to the level where it became one of the more prosperous states on the subcontinent. He sure did. What's more, Mussolini made the trains run on time, Stalin ran a tight security service and Hitler sure did make some good roads.
Please.
Allende was elected by a narrow margin, so he deserved to be overthrown? Fair enough - let's kill old Bushy boy too, since he was elected by a very narrow margin. What Cooper takes aim at primarily in this book is this notion that Pinochet's brand of "fascism" was good fascism - that it's OK to, say, train alsatians to rape prisoners if they were a bit leftist and their candidate had screwed up the economy.
No economy is so important that mass murder is an acceptable way to rectify it. The fact that so many people on the right refuse to accept this simple moral fact makes me worry for the free West, and how much longer it's going to be free for if we can't acknowledge a simple thing like mass murder being morally wrong.
Bravo, Cooper, you've upset the pinheads.
Leftist trash talk about Pinochet and Chile........2004-01-04
This book purports to give a true view of Chile and the Pinochet regime. The author is a sixties radical who at one time worked as a translator on Allende's presidential staff. Warren Beatty endorsed this book as saying it cleared the distortions about Chile.
Where to begin?
I have never given a one star review of any book. Cooper's book deserves no star, because it is a distortion of any truth. I don't think the book is at all balanced with what I know about Chile. I know Chile as well as Cooper. My wife is Chilean and happens to be a socialist. I also have visited Chile many times and love the people and the country.
First, Allende won a very narrow mandate in the election of 1970.
He sought to radically change his country but introduced chaos into his country. He alienated many people including most of the middle and upper classes along with the conservative population of the countryside. My wife is from Curico, in the central agricultural region.
Allende also antongonized some powerful patrons such as the United States and ITT (which owned the copper mines in the north of the country). The United States contributed much of the foreign aid Chile received. What did Allende do? Nationalize the copper mines and invite Castro for a month long visit. Smart move--make enemies of those who contributed most to the Chilean economy. When the economy tanked, chaos was the result.
Workers demands became even more aggressive. Nationalization of smaller companies and agricultural estates were the result. Strikes and work stoppages were common. Economic decline was the result. Copper states that this was the finest hour for Chile. WOW--what a distortion. Economic decline and political chaos and he believes that it was Chile's finest hour. If one wants a modern day example of Chile in the seventies, look at Chavez's Venezuela.
Cooper is right in saying the Nixon administration helped in throwing Allende out of office. However Allende was going down a road which would have resulted in his overthrow.
The military sickened by the economic decline and political chaos overthrew the Allende regime. Pinochet was a reluctant leader of the coup. However, once the die was set, he embraced the coup and brutal crackdown. Over 3100 people died in the coup and the seventeen year dictatorship. Chile was not the worst dictatorship as Cooper would have you believe. In fact, Castro's dictatorship has been far more harsh in this hemisphere. Cooper does not want you to know that. That would distort his story.
Most Chileans believe Allende was an inept leader. Both Allende and Pinochet are divisive issues in Chile today. People don't like to argue the issues involving these two people. That is why Pinochet is not on trial in Chile. Perhaps in the future this may happen, but probably after Pinochet's death. But Cooper wants to rip open the scars of the past to try the crimes of the dictatorship.
One thing the dictatorship did do was set Chile as an economic powerhouse of South America. Where most of the other countries are failing presently, Chile has a thriving economy. Cooper does not want to credit the dictatorship with this. This would destroy his distortion. So he lies and lies and lies.
If I had to summarize the essentials of Cooper's book, it is leftist trash talk about Pinochet and Chile. I wish this book was more objective. It is not. Reader beware.
First hand account.......2002-10-21
Cooper provides chilling details concerning the Allende overthrow that otherwise would lost to history. This is an excellent first-hand account of one persons experience during that tumultuous time. Although Cooper provides a biased account of the political environment in Chile during this time, it nontheless is a true account, whether we Americans like to look at our complicity in these events or not. Bravo to Cooper, the truth shall set you free!
Cooper and Me: A Chilean Anti-Review.......2002-08-20
One can't help but wonder if Cooper would've preferred that Chile had ended up like, say, an Argentina or a Venezuela rather than the stable and prosperous (relatively speaking) country that it is today. There's a sense of profound resentment ... that permeates the entire book, revealed by the ... attempts to discredit the (yes, material) advances Chile has made in the past decade. It seems that Pinochet's main crime is not the horrific human rights abuses that occured under his regime, but rather the meteoric rise of Chile's economy and standard of living. For these successes, and the embarrassment they engender on the rest of the continent and in dinosaurs on the Left, Pinochet and the "Chicago Boys" can never be forgiven.
Customer Reviews:
Thought provoking anthology on caudillismo and caudillos..........1999-08-03
In this very thought provoking book, Hugh M. Hamill has selected a multitude of texts in order to give the reader a multidisciplinary outlook of the phenomenon of caudillismo. Articles by historians, political scientists as well as caudillos themselves allow for the neophyte to take a peek into this the world of these great and not so great leaders of Latin America. This book is a must for anyone with an interest in the particular world of Latin American politics.
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America's Leaders - The First Lady (America's Leaders)
Joanne Mattern
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Unlike the president's other advisers, the first lady is not appointed or elected. She holds her position simply because she is married to the president. Even so, she can be a powerful and highly influential member of the government, as well as an inspiration to the public.
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America's Leaders - The Press Secretary (America's Leaders)
Joanne Mattern
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ASIN: 1567112811 |
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The press secretary is one of the most visible members of the national government. Appointed by the president, the secretary speaks on behalf of the president and makes sure the president has good relations with the media and the American people.
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Bibliography of the Constitutions and Laws of the American Indians
Lester Hargrett
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Hargrett, Lester. A Bibliography of the Constitution and Laws of the American Indians. With an introduction by John R. Swanton. xxi, 124 pp. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1947. Reprinted 2003 by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. LCCN 2002024313. ISBN 1-58477-260-3. Cloth. $95. A thorough descriptive list of 225 printed constitutions, statutes, session acts and resolutions passed by properly authorized bodies of the Cherokee Nation, Chickasaw Nation, Choctaw Nation, Creek (or Muskogee) Nation), Indian Territory, Nez Perce tribe, Omaha Tribe, Osage Nation, Ottawa Tribe, Sac and Fox Nation, Seminole Nation, Seneca Nation, State of Sequoyah, Stockbridge and Munsee Tribe and the Winnebago Tribe. Each chapter begins with a brief history of the tribe or nation and each entry contains useful biographical, historical and bibliographical notes. The author observes that many of these items have not been "recorded in any connection, and the scant biographical information about the others are widely scattered and often imperfect" (Preface). Besterman, A World Bibliography of Bibliographies I:353.
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The Papers of Jefferson Davis: 1849-1852 (Papers of Jefferson Davis)
Manufacturer: Louisiana State University Press
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Customer Reviews:
Young Jeff.......2004-03-06
The Papers of Jefferson Davis is a project out of Rice University in Houston, Texas. The entire series is well-edited, nicely produced and the format of the series is reader-friendly. The books reproduce all of the letters Davis wrote, as well as his speeches, telegrams and the responses to his letters. The responses appear in the footnotes and the appendix of the books.
For anyone with an interest in the American Civil War, Jefferson, or the politics of the Confederacy, these are welcome volumes. Most surprising to me is that Davis comes across privately as an intelligent, sometimes witty man. His letters to hiw wife, Varina, are especially intriguing. Highly recommended.
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The Papers of Jefferson Davis: 1853-1855 (Papers of Jefferson Davis)
Jefferson Davis
Manufacturer: Louisiana State University Press
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ASIN: 0807112402 |
Customer Reviews:
The Young Davis.......2004-03-06
The Papers of Jefferson Davis is a project out of Rice University in Houston, Texas. The entire series is well-edited, nicely produced and the format of the series is reader-friendly. The books reproduce all of the letters Davis wrote, as well as his speeches, telegrams and the responses to his letters. The responses appear in the footnotes and the appendix of the books.
For anyone with an interest in the American Civil War, Jefferson, or the politics of the Confederacy, these are welcome volumes. Most surprising to me is that Davis comes across privately as an intelligent, sometimes witty man. His letters to hiw wife, Varina, are especially intriguing. Highly recommended.
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