NextGen Bar Exam: Constitutional Law

In this splendid new history, Pauline Maier tells the dramatic story of the yearlong battle over ratification that brought such famous founders as Washington, Hamilton, Madison, Jay, and Henry together with less well-known Americans who sometimes eloquently and always passionately expressed their hopes and fears for their new country. Men argued in taverns and coffeehouses; women joined the debate in their parlors; broadsides and newspaper stories advocated various points of view and excoriated others. In small towns and counties nationwide, people read the document carefully and knew it well. Americans seized the opportunity to play a role in shaping the new nation. Then the ratifying conventions chosen by “We the People” scrutinized and debated the Constitution clause by clause.
Although many books have been written about the Constitutional Convention, this is the first major ratification history. It draws on a vast new collection of documents and tells the story with masterful attention to detail in a dynamic narrative. Each state’s experience was different, and Maier gives each it's due even as she focuses on the four critical states of Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Virginia, and New York, whose approval of the Constitution was crucial to its success.

This two-volume set explains all things of the United States from the Settlement of the New Land through the 1980s. It is a thorough development of the history of how the Constitution came to be and how it continues to evolve.

In this unique anthology, Philip B. Kurland and Ralph Lerner draw on the writings of a wide array of people engaged in the problem of making popular government safe, steady, and accountable. The documents included range from the early seventeenth century to the 1830s, from the reflections of philosophers to popular pamphlets, from public debates in ratifying conventions to the private correspondence of the leading political actors of the day.
These rich and varied materials are arranged according to broad themes or problems to which the Constitution of 1787 has made a significant and lasting contribution. Then they are arranged by the U.S. Constitution's articles, sections, and clauses, from the Preamble through Article Seven and the first twelve Amendments.

This book provides summaries and analyses of the interpretive frameworks that have guided the study of the Founding since the publication of "An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution" in 1913. The author argues that scholarship on the Founding is no longer steered by a single dominant approach or a set of questions controlling its direction.

This book looks at United States constitutional developments during the Civil War era, including Supreme Court decisions and the activities of Congress, state legislatures, and state courts.

This book helps to explain why the founding fathers created the Constitution when forming the United States, and the struggles that encapsulated their final decisions about the governmental structure and the laws that are now a part of it.

The debate over the ratification of the United States Constitution has much to tell us about American politics. Using predictions made by Federalists and Anti-Federalists during that debate, Faber examines contemporary American politics. The Federalists explained how the various branches of government would work together to govern while preventing tyranny; the Anti-Federalists told us how things would fall apart and why. Through a careful examination of the two houses of Congress, the Presidency, and the Supreme Court, Faber evaluates the state of each in light of the predictions of the founders. He discusses the condition of the national-state relationship using predictions about federalism and consolidation from the ratification debate. Ultimately, although history has not turned out as the Federalists expected, their political system is working largely as they intended.

Crosskey and Jeffrey help explain the game of politicking during the drafting of the United States Constitution and why and how these concepts have forever affected the nation positively and negatively.

In this masterly account of the Philadelphia summer when our Constitution was born, Clinton Rossiter establishes his claim that the year 1787 is preeminent in American history. Bringing to life the setting and the challenge, he shows how the delegates hammered out the document on which our government and institutions rest today.