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Highlights
- Reveals how the Constitution has evolved over the past 235 years, featuring updated coverage of the 2020 presidential election and constitutional changes made by the Supreme Court up to June 2021 American Constitutional History: A Brief Introduction, Second Edition presents a concise and accessible history of the 235-year development of the Constitution since its ratification.
- About the Author: JACK FRUCHTMAN is Professor Emeritus of Political Science and former Director of the Program in Law and American Civilization at Towson University, Maryland, USA.
- 320 Pages
- Freedom + Security / Law Enforcement, Constitutional
Description
About the Book
"The new republic began in 1781 after the ratification of the Articles of Confederation and continued when the Americans replaced the Articles with the United States Constitution 7 years later. In 1789, the people elected their first federal government. Over the next 15 years, the founding generation made substantive formal changes: in 1791, the states adopted the first 10 amendments, known collectively as the Bill of Rights, followed by two others in 1795 and 1804. The United States doubled its geographic size in 1803 when the Jefferson administration purchased the Louisiana territory from France. The new republic endured slavery, even as some states began its gradual elimination in the 1780s. Most Americans focused on modifying their new government and its powers while declining to resolve the future of slavery. To avoid contention and disunion, the delegates to the constitutional convention did not address it. The words "slavery" or "slave" appear nowhere in the document. Some abolitionists like Benjamin Franklin - a former slave owner himself - John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, and Benjamin Rush attempted to raise the issue, but their efforts failed. Later leaders like William Lloyd Garrison, who founded the abolitionist paper, The Liberator, in 1831 and was co-founder of the Anti-Slavery Society, were active throughout the period. It was not until the end of the Civil War that slavery finally ended. The period also saw the enhancement of the Supreme Court's authority when Chief Justice John Marshall issued his unanimous opinion in Marbury v. Madison in 1803. Marshall wrote into the Constitution that the judges' duty was to interpret the document and to overturn all laws that conflicted with that interpretation. New institutions were created, such as the Bank of the United States, and the Court unanimously approved Congress's authority to create it. George Washington was the first president to sign an executive order while James Monroe was the first to issue a signing statement, indicating his ideas of legislation and how he intended to enforce it"--Book Synopsis
Reveals how the Constitution has evolved over the past 235 years, featuring updated coverage of the 2020 presidential election and constitutional changes made by the Supreme Court up to June 2021American Constitutional History: A Brief Introduction, Second Edition presents a concise and accessible history of the 235-year development of the Constitution since its ratification. The book is organized around five distinct periods in U.S. history--the New Republic, the Slave Republic, the Free-Market Republic, the Social Welfare Republic, and the Contemporary Republic--to demonstrate the evolution of the American republic and its founding document over time. With an engaging narrative approach, author Jack Fruchtman describes how constitutional changes have occurred through both formal amendments and informal decisions by the president, Congress, and the Supreme Court.
Updated to cover the period from 2015 to 2021, the second edition examines the controversial presidential election of 2020 in which Donald Trump, despite losing the electoral and popular vote, claimed victory and espoused charges of widespread election fraud. New coverage of the addition of Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court is complemented by discussion of important decisions made after 2015, including affirming same-sex marriage, a woman's right to abortion under certain circumstances, the right to own and carry a firearm, and the central place of religious liberty in American society. This book also:
- Highlights the Constitution's evolution through government regulation of the economy, individual and civil rights, and executive power
- Reflects the evolution of constitutional changes made by the Supreme Court up to June 2021
- Discusses topics such as the ideological origins of the U.S Constitution, the Civil War and Reconstruction, the civil rights movement, and growth of executive power
- Includes chapter overviews, summaries, and descriptions of formal constitutional amendments ratified by the states
American Constitutional History: A Brief Introduction, Second Edition is an excellent introductory textbook for upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses in American history and political science and a must-read for general readers seeking insights into the origins and evolution of the U.S. Constitution.
From the Back Cover
Reveals how the Constitution has evolved over the past 235 years, featuring updated coverage of the 2020 presidential election and constitutional changes made by the Supreme Court up to June 2021
American Constitutional History: A Brief Introduction, Second Edition presents a concise and accessible history of the 235-year development of the Constitution since its ratification. This book is organized around five distinct periods in U.S. history--the New Republic, the Slave Republic, the Free Market Republic, the Social Welfare Republic, and the Contemporary Republic--to demonstrate the evolution of the American republic and its founding document over time. With an engaging narrative approach, author Jack Fruchtman describes how constitutional changes have occurred through both formal amendments and informal decisions by the president, Congress, and the Supreme Court.
Updated to cover the period from 2015 to 2021, this second edition examines the controversial presidential election of 2020 in which Donald Trump, despite losing the electoral and popular vote, claimed victory and espoused charges of widespread election fraud. New coverage of the addition of Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court is complemented by the discussion of important decisions made after 2015, including affirming same-sex marriage, a woman's right to abortion under certain circumstances, the right to own and carry a firearm, and the central place of religious liberty in American society. This book also:
- Highlights the Constitution's evolution through government regulation of the economy, individual and civil rights, and executive power
- Reflects the evolution of constitutional changes made by the Supreme Court up to June 2021
- Discusses topics such as the ideological origins of the U.S Constitution, the Civil War and Reconstruction, the civil rights movement, and growth of executive power
- Includes chapter overviews, summaries, and descriptions of formal constitutional amendments ratified by the states
American Constitutional History: A Brief Introduction, Second Edition is an excellent introductory textbook for upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses in American history and political science and a must-read for general readers seeking insights into the origins and evolution of the U.S. Constitution.
About the Author
JACK FRUCHTMAN is Professor Emeritus of Political Science and former Director of the Program in Law and American Civilization at Towson University, Maryland, USA. He has authored seven books, including studies of the political thought of Richard Price, Joseph Priestley, and Thomas Paine, and has edited, co-edited, or annotated another five. Professor Fruchtman taught American constitutional law and politics at Towson from 1978 until his retirement in 2019.