From Parchment to Power: How James Madison Used the Bill of Rights to Save the Constutition
From Parchment to Poweris one of those increasingly rare books about American constitutional matters: It strives only to teach, not to grind axes; there are no tedious and tendentious academic squabbles being aired here. Rather, this is constitutional history as it used to be written-clearly, compellingly, and convincingly...The value of Mr. Goldwin's book is the sobriety of its lessons about how the Bill of Rights originally was understood. For those in the first Congress who framed the first amendments, the Bill of Rights was nothing compared to what it has become.  --Gary L. McDowell,The Washington Times,May 11, 1997In this elegant essay on the Bill of Rights, Robert Goldwin distills a lifetime of reflecting about the first principles of republican government into a engaging primer on the origins, ironies, and deeper meanings of the first ten Amendments.  --Jack N. Rakove, Coe Professor of History and American Studies, Stanford UniversityMuch of the story Robert Goldwin tells so elegantly inFrom Parchment to Powercovers familiar terrain. What distinguishes his effort from all others, however, is that he not only presents a fascinating narrative of an important event, but also engages with deeper philosophical issues such as the nature of power, liberty and rights. Central to Goldwin's method is an appreciation for historical contingency and the role that individual reflection and choice can play in advancing the cause of freedom or tyranny...The great strength of this book lies in its elucidation of how, why and to what end Madison worked to add a Bill of Rights to the new Constitution...Goldwin's approach to Madison is sympathetic and open to the possibility that he might still have something to teach us. --C. Bradley Thompson,TLS,September 4, 1998The book allows clarifying of the muddied issues of contemporary constitutional jurisprudence by showing what is at stake in the current debate over rights: both concerning the often recondite debate over originalism versus something else in jurisprudence and also concerning the fundamental question of what rights are and how to secure them. Mr. Goldwin does this in a finely crafted historical inquiry, without polemics but with constant and searching attention to the many questions raised by what appear to be the tergiversations of Madison's career...The rich lessons in constitutional statecraft conveyed by this book coincide in no small measure with the fact that, like the book's subject, its author is one of those rare men, a scholar of the first rank who is also a man of practical experience on the highest level. (Terence E. Marshall,The Review of Politics,Winter 1998) --Terence E. Marshall,The Review of Politics