THE HERITAGE GUIDE TO THE CONSTITUTION ADDITIONAL RECOMMENDED READING

Primary Sources and Collected Documents

The Essential Antifederalist

Edited by William B. Allen and Gordon Lloyd (University Press of America, 1985)

An accessible selection of leading anti-Federalist opinion. After an interpretative essay by the editors, the selections are grouped to focus on the origins of anti-Federalist thought, then later views on federalism, republicanism, capitalism, and democracy.

Debates on the Constitution

Edited by Bernard Bailyn (The Library of America, 1993)

A two-volume collection of Federalist and anti-Federalist speeches, articles, and letters during the struggle over ratification of the Constitution, focusing on debates in the press and correspondence between September 1787 and August 1788, as well as on the debates in the state ratifying conventions of Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts, South Carolina, Virginia, New York, and North Carolina.

Commentaries on the Laws of England

William Blackstone (University of Chicago Press, 1991)

Originally lecture notes designed as a general introduction to the law, these volumes of British legal thinking and common law analysis were significant in England and the American colonies in the century after their initial publication in 1765 and were thus especially influential during the formation of the American legal system.

The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787

Edited by Max Farrand (Yale University Press, 1986)

This definitive work, originally published in 1937, gathers into three volumes all the written records left by participants of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, including James Madison’s extensive official notes.

The Federalist Papers

Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison (Mentor Books edition, 1999)

Published as a series of newspaper articles intended to sway New Yorkers in the debate over ratification, this famous collection of essays in defense of the Constitution remains the greatest work of American political philosophy. The classic edition, edited by the late Clinton Rossiter, has now been published with an introduction by Charles Kesler, as well as an historical glossary and other supplementary materials.

The U.S. Constitution: A Reader

Edited by the Hillsdale College Politics Faculty (Hillsdale College Press, 2012)

This reader features 113 primary source documents covering the principles of the American founding, the framing and structure of the Constitution, the secession crisis and the Civil War, the Progressive rejection of the Constitution, and the building of the administrative state based on Progressive principles. Each section has a full introduction and each entry is prefaced by an introductory note, thus placing all the documents in a coherent framework.

American Political Writing During the Founding Era

Edited by Charles Hyneman and Donald Lutz (Liberty Press, 1983)

This two-volume set includes pamphlets, articles, sermons and essays written by various political authors between 1762 and 1805. Each of the seventy-six entries is introduced by a brief note on the author.

The Founders’ Constitution

Edited by Philip B. Kurland and Ralph Lerner (Liberty Fund, 2000)

Originally published by the University of Chicago Press to commemorate the bicentennial of the Constitution, this extensive work consists of extracts from the leading works on political theory, history, law, and constitutional arguments on which the Framers and their contemporaries drew and which they themselves produced. Liberty Fund has prepared a paperback edition of the entire work in five volumes. It is also available online at http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders.

Commentaries on the Constitution

Joseph Story (Carolina Academic Press, 1987)

A classic work on the meaning of the U.S. Constitution by one of its early scholars and one of the greatest justices of the Supreme Court. A reprint of the 1833 edition includes histories of various colonies and of the Revolutionary and Confederation periods; it also includes straightforward commentaries on most clauses of the Constitution.

Secondary Sources and Collected Documents

Taking the Constitution Seriously

Walter Berns (Simon and Schuster, 1987)

This brief work makes a defense of the original intent of the Framers by relating the Constitution back to the principles of the Declaration of Independence and considering how the Founding dealt with various challenges to the idea of constitutionalism.

Originalism: A Quarter-Century of Debate

Edited by Steven G. Calabresi (Regnery, 2007)

A collection of speeches, panel discussions, and debates, this book chronicles the development and growth of originalism as a judicial philosophy, compiling a variety of viewpoints on originalism from leading legal scholars. The volume includes Attorney General Edwin Meese’s 1985 speech to the American Bar Association and his speech to the Federalist Society twenty years later.

The Age of Federalism: The Early American Republic, 1788–1800

Stanley Elkins and Eric McKitrick (Oxford University Press, 1993)

This lengthy work traces the development of the new nation from the time after the Constitutional Convention through its first three presidents. A comprehensive analysis of the early national period, including all the achievements and fights of the chief figures.

The Slaveholding Republic: An Account of the United States Government’s Relations to Slavery

Don E. Fehrenbacher (Oxford University Press, 2001)

This detailed study, stretching from the First Continental Congress to the Civil War, argues persuasively that early trends in the colonies were against slavery and that the U.S. Constitution is not a pro-slavery document, despite later policies that supported the institution.

From Parchment to Power: How James Madison Used the Bill of Rights to Save the Constitution

Robert Goldwin (American Enterprise Institute, 1997)

A clear and convincing historical study of the constitutional issues surrounding the creation of the Bill of Rights, looking at the philosophical arguments behind these guarantees and how Madison crafted the first ten amendments and shepherded them through the First Congress.

Saving the Revolution: The Federalist Papers and the American Founding

Edited by Charles Kesler (New York: Free Press, 1987)

An approachable collection of fourteen essays by leading scholars explaining and interpreting the Federalist Papers on topics such as republicanism, federalism, foreign policy, the separation of powers, executive power, and the original purposes of the Constitution.

Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution 1787–1788

Pauline Maier (Simon and Schuster, 2010)

A well-researched, well-written history of what came after the convention in Philadelphia based on the wealth of historical sources surrounding the state ratification conventions.

Principles of Constitutional Law

John E. Nowak and Ronald D. Rotunda (West, 2010)

This concise treatise on American constitutional law (condensed from a five-volume legal text) provides law students and non-students with a basic understanding of the most fundamental principles of constitutional law. The text is designed to explain and analyze those principles, and it provides a guide as to how judges and legal practitioners apply them in the world outside the classroom, thus forming the foundation used to develop new precedents.

Originalism in American Law and Politics: A Constitutional History

Johnathan O’Neill (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005)

This work chronicles the development of originalism from its beginning in Anglo-American constitutionalism to its reemergence as a prominent facet of post-war American political life, demonstrating that originalism derives from the core principles of the Anglo-American constitutional tradition.

The Beginnings of National Politics: An Interpretive History of the Continental Congress

Jack N. Rakove (Alfred Knopf, 1979)

Rakove follows the flow of events to reconstruct the circumstances and decisions of the First Continental Congress of 1774 and the Second Continental Congress (which began in 1775 and became the Congress of the Confederation in 1781), including the administration of the Revolutionary War, the framing (and breakdown) of the Articles of Confederation, and the reform movement that culminated in the Constitutional Convention of 1787.

1787: The Grand Convention

Clinton Rossiter (MacMillan Company, 1966)

Rossiter, the editor of the most widely read edition of The Federalist Papers, examines the meeting that created the Constitution in this very readable work, focusing on the setting, men, events, and consequences of the federal convention through the early years of the new republic. A number of related documents are also included.

What the Anti-Federalists Were For: The Political Thought of the Opponents of the Constitution

Herbert J. Storing (The University of Chicago, 1981)

A brief introduction to the thought of the Anti-Federalists, who opposed the ratification of the Constitution and wanted a small republic, more federalism, and a bill of rights, among other things. It also considers their effect on enduring themes of American political life, such as a concern for big government and the infringement of personal liberty.

Living Constitution, Dying Faith: Progressivism and the New Science of Jurisprudence

Bradley C. S. Watson (ISI Books, 2009)

This work explains how modern legal thinking began with the progressive rejection of America’s principles and its creation of a new theory of the “living Constitution.”