by Jack N. Rakove
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Product Description
From abortion to same-sex marriage, today's most urgent political debates will hinge on this two-part question: What did the United States Constitution originally mean and who now understands its meaning best? Rakove chronicles the Constitution from inception to ratification and, in doing so, traces its complex weave of ideology and interest, showing how this document has meant different things at different times to different groups of Americans.
Amazon.com Review
Imagine, for a preposterous moment, that 55 national leaders convened to write a document to guide the country for hundreds of years. It seems unlikely--given that our current contingent of so-called leaders can't agree on how to balance a checkbook--that they could reach consensus on such issues as the allotment of congressional seats. The political and ideological issues that faced the creators of the Constitution were similar in some ways to those at play today. And in some ways they were vastly different ones. Jack Rakove, a history professor at Stanford University, has in this book framed the process that led to the drafting of the constitution in its historical and political context to offer insight into the difficulty of interpreting that most influential of documents.
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Average Customer Review:
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
 The wrong title, 2008-01-22
The title should include this addendum: "An in-depth look at the American experience during the ratification of the Constitution." One can't fault the author's knowledge or research, but his ability to write a captivating book about an important subject is wanting. At a time in U.S. Constitutional history when the questionable theory of "original intent" is tossed about by conservative judicial activists to justify their judicial philosophy, the book misses the opportunity to explore and synthesize original meaning from a variety of perspectives at the time ratification was being debated. Instead, the book delves into the details of ratification, including vote apportionment (seemingly endlessly?)without providing the reader with much more than a detailed review of the general attitude of the American "deciders" and the influence of our history with England and Revolution. Worthy endeavors, but not the type of discussion that helps one understand original meaning and the validity of it as a judicial philosophy in the context of what was being attempted, why, and what the Constitution's proponents thought it meant for future "deciders." As the Supreme Court now confronts issues of our time, it would have been nice to juxtapose original meaning at the time of ratification with current popular understanding of that concept and discuss its strengths and flaws as a judicial philosophy. Alas, that will be for another book.
"Original Meaning is a good academic history book of details, but it doesn't contribute much to the understanding of original meaning on today's reality, and thus, falls short of the promise of its title.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
 An excellent explication of the political thought behind the U.S. Constitution, 2007-09-12
I just finished reading this book for a class in U.S. Constitutional History and my Professor has aptly noted that this book really attempts to do two things: first, it makes this point about Originalism, demonstrating that any attempt to divine original meaning, intention, or understanding is perilous because of the diverse thought, political motivations, and interests present in the drafting and ratification of the Constitution. Second, it attempts to show the difficulties of Constitution-making, and how the framers attempted to reconcile a revolutionary republican ideology with the practical problems of governance.
While the conclusion of the first objective has been criticized and debated by various reviewers (and appropriately so), I believe that this book is extremely valuable in its accomplishment of this second purpose. With dense yet incredibly readable prose, Rakove demonstrates that the Constitution was an attempt to combine republican principles with the practical experiences of the States during the Revolution and under the Articles of Confederation.
Using a few topical discussions such as a discussion of views on Representation, the Presidency, and Rights, Rakove illuminates the thinking embraced by the Framers (such as that of Locke, Montesquieu, and others) and compares and relates such principles with the real experience and concerns of the Framers (such as Madison's view that the States were becoming destructive of property rights under the Confederation). Such descriptions go a long way in describing how and why the Framers crafted the systems of government found in the Constitution and why these systems drew some criticism from both inside and outside the Convention.
While this book is (as others have pointed out) aimed more towards scholars than the layman, I highly recommend this book to any serious student of the Constitution. Prior knowledge of the events of the Revolutionary period is a must, and having read Bailyn's "Ideological Origins of the American Revolution" or Wood's "Creation of the American Republic" will be helpful.
While the Originalism issue comes up here, this book will illuminate your understanding of the Framing of the Constitution generally, and it allows the reader to make up his/her own mind about the author's thesis (or really perhaps better here called an admonition) about the Constitution's original meaning.
6 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
Misreading the Intent of the Founders, 2007-07-23
Our Constitution has been misconceived by the so called "progressive" Left for over half a century - at least since the days of the New Deal. It is not a list of suggestions passed on by the founders to be modified in each succeeding generation according to the prevailing mood of that generation.
The Constitution is a compact between the people and their government establishing the basic framework by which a free people are to be governed, and the the limits of the power to be wielded over them by that government. As such, it was meant to be a permanent framework for the government of the American people - not to be altered at the whim of Congress or the Courts.
The founders provided a method for amending the original compact. They did not leave it to Congress alone, nor did they conceive that the Courts would usurp the authority to rewrite the Constitution by judicial fiat.
They deliberately made the amendment process cumbersome and difficult in order to insure that any future modification of our fundamental compact of government could be achieved only with an overwhelming consensus of the electorate and of the states. This was done in order to preserve the institutions of a self-governing Republic, and to protect the rights of the people against the momentary and transient whims of public opinion, or the machinations of any faction which might achieve a temporary moment of dominance over the government.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
 A Book for the thinking person, 2007-06-09
A previous reviewer said it best already: this book is not for the average reader. If the person picking up this volume has a basic understanding of 18th century American thought, an open mind--critical not gullible, an understanding that America was not a unified nation until the Civil War, this very informative, thought provoking book will prove a treasure. You may not agree with the author in everything, but make sure you know enough to know why you disagree.
11 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
A wealth of information, presented badly, bound by a poisonous idea, 2006-10-18
Jack Rakove certainly knows a lot of history about the founding fathers. Perhaps he knows too much. For the wealth of information in his brain has left him confused. It has left him confused about the meaning of the constitution. And it has led him to believe, since the meaning of the constitution is so hard to divine, that it actually has no meaning, and therefore we must be at the mercy of judges to mete out justice.
This is poppycock. No, worse, it is dangerous.
I am not claiming that explication of original intent is easy. But just because something is hard is not sufficient reason to abandon the project. We owe it to ourselves to be governed by laws as they were understood at the time they were written. If those laws are insufficient for today's needs, then they need to be amended by legislative processes, not tailored by a particular judge's sense of justice.
I wonder if Jack Rakove is actually persuaded by his own ideas, or whether a better description would be simply that he is complicit in the theft of our constitution by today's legal theorists. I think that if you could really burrow into the depths of a persons soul, you'd find the answer is the latter. Because I think Jack Rakove is actually a smart guy.
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