We the People, Volume 2

Transformations

Nonfiction, Reference & Language, Law, Constitutional, History, Americas, United States
Cover of the book We the People, Volume 2 by Bruce Ackerman, Harvard University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Bruce Ackerman ISBN: 9780674736627
Publisher: Harvard University Press Publication: September 15, 2000
Imprint: Harvard University Press Language: English
Author: Bruce Ackerman
ISBN: 9780674736627
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Publication: September 15, 2000
Imprint: Harvard University Press
Language: English

Constitutional change, seemingly so orderly, formal, and refined, has in fact been a revolutionary process from the first, as Bruce Ackerman makes clear in We the People, Volume 2: Transformations. The Founding Fathers, hardly the genteel conservatives of myth, set America on a remarkable course of revolutionary disruption and constitutional creativity that endures to this day. After the bloody sacrifices of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Party revolutionized the traditional system of constitutional amendment as they put principles of liberty and equality into higher law. Another wrenching transformation occurred during the Great Depression, when Franklin Roosevelt and his New Dealers vindicated a new vision of activist government against an assault by the Supreme Court. These are the crucial episodes in American constitutional history that Ackerman takes up in this second volume of a trilogy hailed as “one of the most important contributions to American constitutional thought in the last half-century” (Cass Sunstein, The New Republic). In each case he shows how the American people—whether led by the Founding Federalists or the Lincoln Republicans or the Roosevelt Democrats—have confronted the Constitution in its moments of great crisis with dramatic acts of upheaval, always in the name of popular sovereignty. A thoroughly new way of understanding constitutional development, We the People, Volume 2: Transformations reveals how America’s “dualist democracy” provides for these populist upheavals that amend the Constitution, often without formalities. The book also sets contemporary events, such as the Reagan Revolution and Roe v. Wade, in deeper constitutional perspective. In this context Ackerman exposes basic constitutional problems inherited from the New Deal Revolution and exacerbated by the Reagan Revolution, then considers the fundamental reforms that might resolve them. A bold challenge to formalist and fundamentalist views, this volume demonstrates that ongoing struggle over America’s national identity, rather than consensus, marks its constitutional history.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Constitutional change, seemingly so orderly, formal, and refined, has in fact been a revolutionary process from the first, as Bruce Ackerman makes clear in We the People, Volume 2: Transformations. The Founding Fathers, hardly the genteel conservatives of myth, set America on a remarkable course of revolutionary disruption and constitutional creativity that endures to this day. After the bloody sacrifices of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Party revolutionized the traditional system of constitutional amendment as they put principles of liberty and equality into higher law. Another wrenching transformation occurred during the Great Depression, when Franklin Roosevelt and his New Dealers vindicated a new vision of activist government against an assault by the Supreme Court. These are the crucial episodes in American constitutional history that Ackerman takes up in this second volume of a trilogy hailed as “one of the most important contributions to American constitutional thought in the last half-century” (Cass Sunstein, The New Republic). In each case he shows how the American people—whether led by the Founding Federalists or the Lincoln Republicans or the Roosevelt Democrats—have confronted the Constitution in its moments of great crisis with dramatic acts of upheaval, always in the name of popular sovereignty. A thoroughly new way of understanding constitutional development, We the People, Volume 2: Transformations reveals how America’s “dualist democracy” provides for these populist upheavals that amend the Constitution, often without formalities. The book also sets contemporary events, such as the Reagan Revolution and Roe v. Wade, in deeper constitutional perspective. In this context Ackerman exposes basic constitutional problems inherited from the New Deal Revolution and exacerbated by the Reagan Revolution, then considers the fundamental reforms that might resolve them. A bold challenge to formalist and fundamentalist views, this volume demonstrates that ongoing struggle over America’s national identity, rather than consensus, marks its constitutional history.

More books from Harvard University Press

Cover of the book Convicting the Innocent by Bruce Ackerman
Cover of the book Energy Revolution by Bruce Ackerman
Cover of the book The Great Acceleration by Bruce Ackerman
Cover of the book Sexual Fluidity by Bruce Ackerman
Cover of the book A Book of Conquest by Bruce Ackerman
Cover of the book Republicanism in Russia by Bruce Ackerman
Cover of the book Jottings under Lamplight by Bruce Ackerman
Cover of the book America's Pastor by Bruce Ackerman
Cover of the book The Axial Age and Its Consequences by Bruce Ackerman
Cover of the book Scientists at War by Bruce Ackerman
Cover of the book Contraband by Bruce Ackerman
Cover of the book America’s Dream Palace by Bruce Ackerman
Cover of the book Testing Prayer by Bruce Ackerman
Cover of the book Aquinas on the Beginning and End of Human Life by Bruce Ackerman
Cover of the book Heidegger on Being Uncanny by Bruce Ackerman
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy