I recently read “America’s Constitution: A Biography” by Akhil Reed Amar. Dr. Amar is a professor of law and political science at Yale University. It was a very good book written from a different perspective than other books I have read on the Constitution. This book followed the Constitution from its birth as a replacement for the Articles of Confederation, to its current amended form.
The thing I liked best about this book was it looked at the Constitution as a whole. In doing this Dr. Amar not only wrote and explained the amendments to the Constitution, but he also explained why the people who proposed the amendments thought they would be a good idea. He included in his explanation political realities that were present at the time and how these realities affected the political thought behind the movement to amend the Constitution.
The only thing I wish he would have covered more was the Founders reasoning in how Senators were elected. He points out that for while the Founders were very concerned with a democratic form of government, they were also concerned with preventing the excesses and inefficiencies that democracy could cause, which is why we actually became a representative republic. What he did not explain was why the Founders found it necessary to have one legislative house elected by the people and the other elected by the elected state representatives. I would have really liked to get his take on what that was necessary.
Even without that explanation I learned a lot about the Constitution, the process used to create, why it was considered necessary, and, most importantly, what the people were really voting on when they ratified the Constitution. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.
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