American Sovereigns: The People and America's Constitutional Tradition Before the Civil War

ISBN-13: 9780521125604 / Angielski / Miękka / 2009 / 440 str.

Christian G. Fritz

Opis

American Sovereigns is a path-breaking interpretation of America's political history and constitutionalism that explores how Americans struggled over the idea that the people would rule as the sovereign after the American Revolution. National and state debates about government action, law, and the people's political powers reveal how Americans sought to understand how a collective sovereign-the people-could both play the role as the ruler and yet be ruled by governments of their own choosing.

Recenzje

'In one of the most significant contributions to rethinking the nature and function of constitutionalism that this reviewer has encountered in many years, promising historian-lawyer Fritz (University of New Mexico) has taken a new look at the role of popular sovereignty in conflicts over the nature of constitutionalism in the US … A highly accessible, nicely produced, and beautifully researched and written book that is a must read for historians and teachers of public law.' S. N. Katz, Princeton University

Spis treści

1. Prologue; Part I. The People's Sovereignty in the States: 2. Revolutionary constitutionalism; 3. Grass-roots self-government: America's early determinist movements; 4. Revolutionary tensions: 'friends of government' confront 'the regulators' in Massachusetts; Part II. The Sovereign Behind the Federal Constitution: 5. The federal constitution and the effort to constrain the people; 6. Testing the constitutionalism of 1787: the Whiskey 'Rebellion' in Pennsylvania; 7. Federal sovereignty: competing views of the federal constitution; Part III. The Struggle over a Constitutional Middle Ground: 8. The collective sovereign persists: the people's constitution in Rhode Island; 9. Epilogue.