Constitution Day

"Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, and James Madison, 'Father of the Constitution,' were two of the most important Founders of the United States as well as the closest of political allies. Yet historians have often seen a tension between the idealistic rhetoric of the Declaration and the more pedestrian language of the Constitution. Moreover, to some, the adoption of the Constitution represented a repudiation of the democratic values of the Revolution. In this book, Jeff Broadwater explores the evolution of the constitutional thought of these two seminal American figures, from the beginning of the American Revolution through the adoption of the Bill of Rights."

"In this timely and provocative book, Damon Root reveals how Frederick Douglass's fight for an antislavery Constitution helped to shape the course of American history in the nineteenth century and beyond."

"This book traces the history of the right to anonymous speech in America, dating back to the pseudonymous publication of the Federalist Papers and other foundational political writings. It examines how courts have recognized a First Amendment right to anonymity, and how that right has shaped the Internet that we know today"

"The Fourteenth Amendment, ratified on July 9, 1868, identified all legitimate voters as "male." In so doing, it added gender-specific language to the U.S. Constitution for the first time. Suffrage Reconstructed is the first book to consider how and why the amendment's authors made this decision."

"The Constitution is not so simple that it explains itself—nor so complex that only experts can understand it. In this accessible, nonpartisan quick reference, historian Andrew Arnold provides concise explanations of the Constitution's meaning and history, offering little-known facts and anecdotes about every article and all twenty-seven amendments."

"Although much has changed in the United States since the eighteenth century, our framework for gun laws still largely relies on the Second Amendment and the patterns that emerged in the colonial era. America has long been a heavily armed, and racially divided, society, yet few citizens understand either why militias appealed to the founding fathers or the role that militias played in North American rebellions, in which they often functioned as repressive--and racist--domestic forces."

"The remarkable story of the innovative legal strategies Native Americans have used to protect their religious rights."