Bruce Ackerman is Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale University and the award-winning author of eighteen books, including Social Justice in the Liberal State and his multivolume constitutional history We the People. His book The Stakeholder Society (written with Anne Alstott) served as a basis for Tony Blair’s introduction of child investment accounts in the United Kingdom. He contributes frequently to the New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times. Ackerman is a member of the American Law Institute and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the recipient of the American Philosophical Society’s Henry M. Phillips Prize for lifetime achievement in jurisprudence.

Just like with his magnificent We the People, Bruce Ackerman has intertwined well researched history with an unparalleled skill as a constitutional theorist. The Failure of the Founding Fathers describes the maneuvering that validated Thomas Jefferson's claim to the presidency that then created a decade-long confrontation between the Jeffersonians in the elected branches of the Federalists in the judiciary. This is constitutional history at its finest.

• Part One: The People's President Introduction: America on the Brink 1. The Original Misunderstanding 2. John Marshall for President 3. Jefferson Counts Himself In 4. On the Brink 5. What Went Right? Part Two: The People and the Court Introduction: Constitutional Brinksmanship 6. Federalist Counterattack 7. Republican Triumph 8. Marbury v. Stuart 9. Presidential Purge 10. Synthesis 11. Reverberations Documents Horatius's Presidential Knot Judge Bassett's Protest Notes Acknowledgments Index

Bruce Ackerman is Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale University and the award-winning author of eighteen books, including Social Justice in the Liberal State and his multivolume constitutional history We the People. His book The Stakeholder Society (written with Anne Alstott) served as a basis for Tony Blair’s introduction of child investment accounts in the United Kingdom. He contributes frequently to the New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times. Ackerman is a member of the American Law Institute and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the recipient of the American Philosophical Society’s Henry M. Phillips Prize for lifetime achievement in jurisprudence.

Just like with his magnificent We the People, Bruce Ackerman has intertwined well researched history with an unparalleled skill as a constitutional theorist. The Failure of the Founding Fathers describes the maneuvering that validated Thomas Jefferson's claim to the presidency that then created a decade-long confrontation between the Jeffersonians in the elected branches of the Federalists in the judiciary. This is constitutional history at its finest.

• Part One: The People's President Introduction: America on the Brink 1. The Original Misunderstanding 2. John Marshall for President 3. Jefferson Counts Himself In 4. On the Brink 5. What Went Right? Part Two: The People and the Court Introduction: Constitutional Brinksmanship 6. Federalist Counterattack 7. Republican Triumph 8. Marbury v. Stuart 9. Presidential Purge 10. Synthesis 11. Reverberations Documents Horatius's Presidential Knot Judge Bassett's Protest Notes Acknowledgments Index