We the People, Volume 1: Foundations (We the People (Harvard))
We the Peoplecan be recommended to anyone seeking a readable and complete introduction to the state of current Constitutional thought. Its analysis of the constraints on past and present judges and legal theorists, and the weaknesses in a panoply of jurisprudential positions is lucid and elegant. (Stephen PresserChicago Tribune)This book is one of the most imporant contributions to American constitutional thought in the last half-century (Cass R. SunsteinNew Republic)[We the People] cuts through the futile and absurd search for the 'original intent of the founders' as the way to discover the will of the people. It recognizes that the great and extraordinary occasions required for action by the people have not been confined to a single instance in the eighteenth century. It deflates the pretensions of politicians in normal politics but magnifies the importance of political leadership in mobilizing popular support for constitutional politics when constitutional politics is needed. It gives pragmatic meaning to government of, by, and for the elusive, invisible, inaudible, but sovereign people. (Edmund S. MorganNew York Review of Books)One of the most distinguished works on the american constitution since world war II. It combines law, political theory, political science, and even a lil economics with a rare attention to history; and it does so while developing and extremely innovative and original argument, one that has a soild claim to acceptance...There is no doubt that the book will be highly influential. I think that it will significantly alter the way that people think and talk about the American Constitution...The book is extremely well-written. Indeed, it successfully carries out the most unusual task of making difficult matters accessible to an extremely wide audience...This is a truly distinguished contribution to constitutional thought, one that will reorient the field in major ways (Cass R. Sustein, Law School, University of Chicago)The most imporant project now underway in the entire field of constitutional theory...the three volumes that will eventually comprise Ackerman's contribution theory to be published in this decade, but, indeed, perphaps in the past half-century...Ackerman posits a complex process of "Publian politics" whereWe The Peoplebecome authorized to change the constitution without ever invoking the procedures laid out in Article V...We the peoplecan also lay claim to being the most significant work in "constructive" American political thought since Louis Hartz'sThe Liberal Tradition in Americapublished some 35 years ago. For Ackerman is reopening the question about" American exceptionalism" and arguing, with extraordinary vigor, that American political development is indeed imporantly different from European and other models (Sanford Levinson, School of Law, University of Texas at Austin)