| Between Authority & Liberty: State Constitution Making in Revolutionary America Contributor(s): Kruman, Marc W. (Author) |
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ISBN: 0807847976 ISBN-13: 9780807847978 Publisher: University of North Carolina Press OUR PRICE: $40.38 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: August 1999 Annotation: Explores the process of constitution making in each of the thirteen original states and shows that the framers greatly feared arbitrary power and mistrusted legislators ability to represent the peoples interests. For these reasons, they broadened the suffrage and introduced frequent elections as a check against legislative self-interest. Krumans analysis challenges Gordon Woods now-classic argument that, at the beginning of the Revolution, the founders placed great faith in legislators as representatives of the people. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Political Science | History & Theory - General - History | United States - Revolutionary Period (1775-1800) - Political Science | Constitutions |
| Dewey: 320.473 |
| LCCN: 96011615 |
| Lexile Measure: 1590 |
| Physical Information: 0.63" H x 6.21" W x 9.27" (0.85 lbs) 238 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - 18th Century |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: In a major reinterpretation of American political thought in the revolutionary era, Marc Kruman explores the process of constitution making in each of the thirteen original states and shows that the framers created a distinctively American science of politics well before the end of the Confederation era. Suspicious of all government power, state constitution makers greatly feared arbitrary power and mistrusted legislators' ability to represent the people's interests. For these reasons, they broadened the suffrage and introduced frequent elections as a check against legislative self-interest. This analysis challenges Gordon Wood's now-classic argument that, at the beginning of the Revolution, the founders placed great faith in legislators as representatives of the people. According to Kruman, revolutionaries entrusted state constitution making only to members of temporary provincial congresses or constitutional conventions whose task it was to restrict legislative power. At the same time, Americans maintained a belief in the existence of a public good that legislators and magistrates, when properly curbed by one another and by a politically active citizenry, might pursue. |
Contributor Bio(s): Kruman, Marc W.: - Marc W. Kruman, professor and chair of history at Wayne State University, is author of Parties and Politics in North Carolina, 1836-1865. |