The U.S. Constitution: A Reader Author: Hillsdale College Politics Faculty | Language: English | ISBN:
B007RZJ63S | Format: PDF
The U.S. Constitution: A Reader Description
Featuring 113 primary source documents, The U.S. Constitution: A Reader was developed for teaching the core course on the U.S. Constitution at Hillsdale College.
Divided into eleven sections with introductions by members of Hillsdale's Politics Department faculty, readings cover:
-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.
America's Founders created a form of government which had, in the words of James Madison, "no model on the face of the earth." Its moral foundation is in the Declaration of Independence and its principle of equal natural rights. Under the Constitution, government was to be limited to protecting those rights.
In recent decades, the way our government operates has departed from the Constitution. Government has become less limited, and our liberties less secure. At the same time, true civic education in America--education in the Constitution--has largely died out. We at Hillsdale College see it as one of our highest duties to reverse this.
- File Size: 1236 KB
- Print Length: 732 pages
- Publisher: Hillsdale College Press (January 28, 2012)
- Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
- Language: English
- ASIN: B007RZJ63S
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #34,733 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
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- #8
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > Political Science > Constitutions - #17
in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > Political Science > Constitutions - #44
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > Ideologies & Doctrines
If you're interested in understanding the Constitution at a new level, this book will set you well along your way. It's a collection of dozens of writings by the Founding Fathers, classical thinkers like Aristotle, Lincoln, Paine, Jefferson, and more common day leaders like JFK, LBJ, and Reagan. It looks at the various opinions and thoughts on Constitutional government, and the assault on it from the Progressives like Woodrow Wilson and FDR. And it does it all by providing you the original source documents. Don't take my word for it, or even political commentators! It's all in the book...you can read FDR's Address to Congress in 1944 and see it for yourself. Want to understand today's Liberal establishment? Take the time to understand their founding principles by reading Wilson's musings or FDR's speeches...it's all in this book. Speeches by Lincoln, FDR, Wilson, Coolidge, Reagan. The Federalist Papers and historical documents written on slavery. Even debate transcripts between Lincoln and Douglas. Read the Progressives' own words on how you should "trust government and give it more and more power". You can read FDR's "Second Bill of Rights" that he offered in his Address to Congress in 1944...it sounds eerily similar to the demands shouted out (in a far less eloquent manner) by today's Occupy Wall Street protesters.
What's cool is this book doesn't really insert its own opinions other than an introductory letter (about 1.5 pages) before each major section (there are 11 sections), and a quick sentence or two summing up individual writings/speeches/etc. It just provides you with the original source documents and you can come to your own conclusions. There are over 780 pages of incredible information in this book.
This 790 page textbook of primary source documents (except for brief paragraph length intros) is a necessary resource for those of us who are political conservatives. This is the textbook used by Hillsdale College in their course on the U.S. Constitution which is required for all students. I have been waiting for this new edition since I found out about it last Constitution Day in September, 2011. I am currently taking an online course by Hillsdale College on the U.S. Constitution and this is the text I am using. I am amazed at the level of education that our Founding Generation had and I have only read about 15 chapters of this book. It seems they had a better understanding of our current political environment that the politicians of today.
This is by no means an easy read. I heartily recommend you get this book but be ready to take your time with it. I am reading some of the things that influenced our Founding Fathers and Mothers and, to put it mildly, these ideas are deep. Last week I had to read an essay by Aristotle entitled "Nicomachean Ethics". This is supposed to address the question, "What is the best life for man?" If it did I missed it. I will have to re-read it until I can see what Aristotle was talking about. This is not meant to discourage anyone. I simply want to be honest that this is not a light read and it will require taking some time in reading, re-reading and reflecting on what is written. I am not giving up; I am it this for the longer haul that will give me some treasure, and if that means having to dig some then so much the better.
Before I graduated high school I had to take 2 years of U.S. history and civics. I never read the Declaration of Independence or the U.S. Constitution in those classes. How can you teach U.S.
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