Founders' Constitution: Volumes 1-5: v. 1-5 (The Founder's Constitution) - Softcover

The editors were famous law professors on the Midway in Chicago. This set of books is a remarkable achievement in legal scholarship. It was originally published by the University of Chicago Press. Liberty Fund now makes it available in a large format (81/2"x11"), soft cover edition at a reasonable price. We applaud this publisher for this republication of such a significant resource.

The editors modestly describe this compilation as "the thoughts, opinions, and arguments of the Founders." Volumes Two, Three, and Four are devoted to the seven articles of the original Constitution, considered clause by clause. Volume Five covers the Bill of Rights and Amendments XI and XII. Volume One is organized by "major themes," such as rights and separation of powers. For example, the chapter on federal versus consolidated government contains an introduction and 44 entries. The chapter introductions throughout the first volume are succinct, insightful, and rather well-written.

The sheer variety of material is noteworthy. The entries on federalism include a typically comprehensive range of items: Montesquieu's Spirit of Laws, letters from George Mason, James Wilson, and James Madison, pamphlets, several portions of the Federalist papers, and a long quote from Thomas Jefferson's Autobiography. Many sources are known to lawyers, at least by identity of author if not by study of the text: Edmund Burke, David Hume, William Blackstone, James Kent, Joseph Story, Niccolo Machiavelli, John Jay, Thomas Paine, John Locke, John Marshall, George Washington, and Abraham Lincoln.

For any appellate lawyer working on a Constitutional issue, this set will be an invaluable research tool. We highly recommended this publication to readers of this Journal.

Dennis Owens
Appellate Practice Journal
Summer 2004
Reprint of the 1987 U. of Chicago Press cloth edition. The five volumes contain a collection of thoughts, opinions, and arguments of the Founders. Readers seeking a general view of a question that took the form of a phrase or clause in the Constitution can find materials assembled under the article, section, and clause numbers of that provision. Those seeking more information are referred to other primary materials, some of which are included in volume 1, which contains materials organized by theme. Volumes 2, 3, 4 and 5 address, respectively, Preamble through Article 1, Section 8, Clause 4; Article 1, Section 8, Clause 5 through Article 2, Section 1; Article 2, Section 2, through Article 7; and Amendments I-XII. Edited by Kurland (formerly of the U. of Chicago) and Lerner (Committee on Social Thought, U. of Chicago).

Reference & Research Book News
February 2001

Originally published by the University of Chicago Press to commemorate the bicentennial of the United States Constitution, The Founders’ Constitution is arguably the most important of all resources on the principles of the Framers of the American republic. As the editors explain, the work consists of “extracts from the leading works of political theory, history, law, and constitutional argument on which the Framers and their contemporaries drew and which they themselves produced.” In cooperation with University of Chicago Press, Liberty Fund has prepared this new paperback edition of the entire work in five volumes:

Volume 1: Major Themes
Volume 2: The Preamble Through Article 1, Section 8, Clause 4
Volume 3: Article 1, Section 8, Clause 5, Through Article 2, Section 1
Volume 4: Article 2, Section 2, Through Article 7
Volume 5: Amendments I Through XII.

The documentary sources and inspirations reach to the early seventeenth century and extend through those Amendments to the Constitution that were adopted by 1835—that is, through the end of the era of Chief Justice John Marshall of the United States Supreme Court.

Philip B. Kurland was the William R. Kenan, Jr., Distinguished Service Professor in the College and Professor in the Law School, University of Chicago.

Ralph Lerner is the Benjamin Franklin Professor in the College and Professor in the Committee on Social Thought, University of Chicago.