From: cramer@optilink.UUCP (Clayton Cramer)
Newsgroups: soc.history,talk.politics.misc,ca.politics,rec.arts.books,misc.legal
Subject: _A Constitutional History of the United States_
Date: 27 Jul 92 22:04:57 GMT
Organization: Optilink Corporation, Petaluma, CA


Looking for a good capsule introduction to the U.S. Constitution and
its history?  Prof. Forrest McDonald wrote _A Constitutional History
of the United States_ in 1982, and it has been recently reprinted.
It was intended as a text for an undergraduate class, and in 
recognition of the realities of who goes to college these days:

    It is a sad fact of life in contemporary America that reading
    is neither the favorite activity nor the most common skill
    among college students.  It is pointless to write a book or 
    assign it to students if they are unwilling or unable to read
    it.  This book is written to be read -- which, in my experience,
    requires most brevity as well as simplicity both conceptually
    and in terms of vocabulary.  I have tested it in manuscript
    form with my own undergraduates; for every word that gave them
    trouble, I found a more common one, and for every concept that
    proved difficult for them, I rewrote until they found the idea
    clear and readily comprehensible.[p. 2]

While a sad commentary on the state of education, it also means
that the book is nearly painless to read, even for those who are
only somewhat interested in constitutional history, and are reading
such a book because they should, rather than because of unbounded
interest.

McDonald's writing, at least based on his works intended for a
more capable audience, is clear and thought-provoking, and even
the watered-down writing contained in this work is still interesting --
unlike some other efforts to simplify writing by reducing it to,
"See Spot run."

I've read quite a number of books on the Constitutional Convention,
all of the published ratification debates, and a number of works
associated with First Amendment, Second Amendment, and Fourteenth
Amendment issues, and to the extent that he addresses these issues,
I find his narrative and analysis to be mainstream, and careful to
distinguish theories from facts.  In particular areas where I have
never ventured, he provides substantial details that were previously
unknown to me:

    Upon being reelected by a record majority in 1936, Roosevelt
    proposed a controversial court-packing plan, which combined
    bribery with coercion.  All Supreme Court justices over the
    age of seventy (which included the four conservatives) would
    be permitted to retire with comfortable pensions.  Those who
    chose not to take advantage of this generosity could not be
    forced to do so, but for each who did not retire within six
    months after reaching the age of seventy, the president would
    be authorized to appoint an additional justice.[p. 197]

I knew about the court-packing plan, but not that the pensions
would be dependent on retiring young.  I would doubtless have
found this out, if I had gone looking for it, but having it 
mentioned in the middle of an overview book greatly expanded
my interest in knowing more about the details of the plan.
-- 
Clayton E. Cramer {uunet,pyramid}!optilink!cramer  My opinions, all mine!
"Well, maybe the Holocaust was right *for that culture*." -- a moral relativist
with whom I work.