America's forgotten constitutions
Subtitle: defiant visions of power and community
By: Robert L. Tsai
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Published: 2014
Language: eng
Number of pages: 352
ISBN-13: 9780674059955
Subjects: Constitutional history; Politics and government; Autonomy and independence movements; History
Description: "The U.S. Constitution opens by proclaiming the sovereignty of all citizens: 'We the People.' Robert Tsai's gripping history of alternative constitutions invites readers into the circle of those who have rejected this ringing assertion - the defiant groups that refused to accept the Constitution's definition of who 'the people' are and how their authority should be exercised. America's Forgotten Constitutions is the story of America as told by dissenters, squatters, Native Americans, abolitionists, socialists, internationalists, and racial nationalists. Beginning in the nineteenth century, Tsai chronicles eight episodes in which discontented citizens took the extraordinary step of drafting a new constitution. He examines the alternative Americas envisioned by John Brown (who dreamed of a republic purged of slavery), Robert Barnwell Rhett (the Confederate 'father of secession'), and Etienne Cabet (a French Socialist who founded a utopian society in Illinois). Other dreamers include the University of Chicago academics who created a world constitution for the nuclear age; the Republic of New Afrika, which demanded a separate country carved from the Deep South; and the contemporary Aryan movement, which plans to liberate America from multiculturalism and feminism. Countering those who treat constitutional law as a single tradition, Tsai argues that the ratification of the Constitution did not quell debate but kindled further conflicts over basic questions of power and community. He explains how the tradition mutated over time, inspiring generations and disrupting the best-laid plans for simplicity and order. Idealists on both the left and right will benefit from reading these cautionary tales"--Unedited summary from book jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: The republic of Indian Stream, 1832-1835; title: The Icarian Nation, 1848-1895; title: John Brown's America, 1856-1859; title: Confederate anxieties, 1860-1865; title: The Sequoyah Convention, 1905; title: A charter for the world, circa 1947; title: The republic of New Afrika, 1968; title: The Pacific Northwest homeland, 2006.