"Liberty and Union is a superb primer on the English origins of American jurisprudence that highlights the most significant aspects of the constitutional history of the United States. Crisply written with a dash of wit and humor, the authors excel at explaining essential legal concepts and differing historical interpretations with clarity and precision. In this splendid overview and comprehensive analysis, they persuasively make the case for the Constitution’s centrality to American culture, politics, and nationhood."—Edward P. Crapol, Pullen Professor of American History, Emeritus, College of William and Mary Williamsburg, VA"Rembrandt’s Aristotle, 1653, contemplated the bust of Homer for wisdom about what to make of the new state system introduced at Westphalia five years earlier. Modern states have recognized the need to make constitutions, but most turned out to be fabricated cover stories. Now with Liberty and Union we can begin to see how the U.S. Constitution made America an exception to that rule. This book fills a huge gap in intellectual history about what a constitution is supposed to be and do--but in other countries almost never is or does."—Professor Charles Hill, Diplomat-in-Residence and lecturer in International Studies at Yale University

• Introduction 1. The English Connection 2. A Legacy Transported and Transformed 3. Independence and Nationhood 4. A More Perfect Union 5. Launching the New Government 6. Jeffersonian Republicanism 7. John Marshall and Judicial Nationalism 8. Majority Rule and Sectional Rights 9. More Power to the States 10. Slavery and the Constitution 11. The Crisis of the Union 12. Reconstructing the Nation

"Liberty and Union is a superb primer on the English origins of American jurisprudence that highlights the most significant aspects of the constitutional history of the United States. Crisply written with a dash of wit and humor, the authors excel at explaining essential legal concepts and differing historical interpretations with clarity and precision. In this splendid overview and comprehensive analysis, they persuasively make the case for the Constitution’s centrality to American culture, politics, and nationhood."—Edward P. Crapol, Pullen Professor of American History, Emeritus, College of William and Mary Williamsburg, VA"Rembrandt’s Aristotle, 1653, contemplated the bust of Homer for wisdom about what to make of the new state system introduced at Westphalia five years earlier. Modern states have recognized the need to make constitutions, but most turned out to be fabricated cover stories. Now with Liberty and Union we can begin to see how the U.S. Constitution made America an exception to that rule. This book fills a huge gap in intellectual history about what a constitution is supposed to be and do--but in other countries almost never is or does."—Professor Charles Hill, Diplomat-in-Residence and lecturer in International Studies at Yale University

• Introduction 1. The English Connection 2. A Legacy Transported and Transformed 3. Independence and Nationhood 4. A More Perfect Union 5. Launching the New Government 6. Jeffersonian Republicanism 7. John Marshall and Judicial Nationalism 8. Majority Rule and Sectional Rights 9. More Power to the States 10. Slavery and the Constitution 11. The Crisis of the Union 12. Reconstructing the Nation

"Liberty and Union is a superb primer on the English origins of American jurisprudence that highlights the most significant aspects of the constitutional history of the United States. Crisply written with a dash of wit and humor, the authors excel at explaining essential legal concepts and differing historical interpretations with clarity and precision. In this splendid overview and comprehensive analysis, they persuasively make the case for the Constitution’s centrality to American culture, politics, and nationhood."—Edward P. Crapol, Pullen Professor of American History, Emeritus, College of William and Mary Williamsburg, VA"Rembrandt’s Aristotle, 1653, contemplated the bust of Homer for wisdom about what to make of the new state system introduced at Westphalia five years earlier. Modern states have recognized the need to make constitutions, but most turned out to be fabricated cover stories. Now with Liberty and Union we can begin to see how the U.S. Constitution made America an exception to that rule. This book fills a huge gap in intellectual history about what a constitution is supposed to be and do--but in other countries almost never is or does."—Professor Charles Hill, Diplomat-in-Residence and lecturer in International Studies at Yale University

• Introduction 1. The English Connection 2. A Legacy Transported and Transformed 3. Independence and Nationhood 4. A More Perfect Union 5. Launching the New Government 6. Jeffersonian Republicanism 7. John Marshall and Judicial Nationalism 8. Majority Rule and Sectional Rights 9. More Power to the States 10. Slavery and the Constitution 11. The Crisis of the Union 12. Reconstructing the Nation