“Let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.” —Thomas Jefferson The United States Constitution—the bedrock of our country, the foundation of our federal republic—is . . . dead. You won’t hear that from the politicians who endlessly pay lip service to the Constitution. It’s the dirty little secret that bestselling authors Thomas E. Woods Jr. and Kevin R. C. Gutzman expose in this provocative new book. The fact is that government officials—Democrats and Republicans, presidents, judges, and congresses alike—long ago rejected the idea that the Constitution possesses a fixed meaning limiting the U.S. government’s power. In case you’ve forgotten, this idea was not a minor aspect of the Constitution; it was the document’s very purpose. Woods and Gutzman round up the suspects responsible for the death of the government the Founding Fathers designed. Going right to the scenes of the crimes, they dissect twelve of the most egregious assaults on the Constitution—some virtually unknown. In chronicling this “dirty dozen,” the authors show that the attacks began long before presidents declared preemptive wars, congresses built pork-barrel bridges to nowhere, and Supreme Court justices began to behave as our supreme legislators. In Who Killed the Constitution? Woods and Gutzman • REVEAL the federal government’s “great gold robbery”—the flagrant assault on the Constitution you never heard about in history class • DESTROY the phony case for presidential war power • EXPOSE how the federal government has actively discriminated to end . . . discrimination • TEAR DOWN the “wall of separation” between church and state—an invention that completely contradicts what the Constitution says • DARE to touch the “third rail of American jurisprudence,” Brown v. Board of Education—showing why a government decision that seems “right” isn’t necessarily constitutional Never shying away from controversy, Woods and Gutzman reveal an unsettling but unavoidable truth: now that the federal government has broken free of the Constitution’s chains, government officials are restrained by little more than their sense of what they can get away with. Who Killed the Constitution? is a rallying cry for Americans outraged by government run amok and a warning to take heed before we lose the liberties we are truly entitled to.

Who Killed the Constitution?: The Fate of American Liberty from World War I to George W. Bush

History

Thomas E. Woods

Kevin R. C.Gutzman

Americas

Crown Forum

Virginia's American Revolution: From Dominion to Republic, 1776-1840

Virginia's American Revolution follows the Virginia revolutionaries from their decision for independence on May 15, 1776, through the following 60 years―when the last of them finally passed from the scene. To their surprise, the decision to break with Great Britain entailed reconsideration of virtually all of their major political and social institutions, from the established church, their aristocratic state government, and feudal land tenures to slavery and their federal relations with the other American states. Some of these issues, such as the place of the Church of England in the newly republican Virginia, received quick resolutions; others, such as the nature of the relationship between the elite and other men, were not so easily decided. All of them were considered against the backdrop of Virginia's decline from preeminence in the Revolution and early Republic to the position of just another state in the age of Jackson. By following Virginia's American Revolution from start to finish, this account shows why so many revolutionaries in the Old Dominion died doubting that their great struggle had been worth the effort.

Lexington Books

Virginia's American Revolution focuses on the remaking of colonial Virginia into a republican society. It considers this topic with a focus on particular episodes, such as the Richmond Ratification Convention of 1788 and the adoption of the Virginia Resolutions of 1798, that brought the question 'What does it mean to be republican? ' to the fore.

The Constitution of the United States created a representative republic marked by federalism and the separation of powers. Yet numerous federal judges--led by the Supreme Court--have used the Constitution as a blank check to substitute their own views on hot-button issues such as abortion, capital punishment, and samesex marriage for perfectly constitutional laws enacted by We the People through our elected representatives. Now, The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Constitution shows that there is very little relationship between the Constitution as ratified by the thirteen original states more than two centuries ago and the "constitutional law" imposed upon us since then. Instead of the system of state-level decision makers and elected officials the Constitution was intended to create, judges have given us a highly centralized system in which bureaucrats and appointed--not elected--officials make most of the important policies. In The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Constitution, Professor Kevin Gutzman explains how the Constitution: 
<ul>
<li>Was understood by the founders who wrote it and the people who ratified it.</li> <li>Follows the Supreme Court as it uses the fig leaf of the Constitution to cover its naked usurpation of the rights and powers the Constitution explicitly reserves to the states and to the people.</li> <li>Slid from the Constitution's republican federal government, with its very limited powers, to an unrepublican "judgeocracy" with limitless powers.</li> <li>How the Fourteenth Amendment has been twisted to use the Bill of Rights as a check on state power instead of on federal power, as originally intended.</li> <li>The radical inconsistency between "constitutional law" and the rule of law.</li> <li>Contends that the judges who receive the most attention in history books are celebrated for acting against the Constitution rather than for it. </li> </ul>
 As Professor Gutzman shows, constitutional law is supposed to apply the Constitution's plain meaning to prevent judges, presidents, and congresses from overstepping their authority. If we want to return to the founding fathers' vision of the Republic, if we want the Constitution enforced in the way it was explained to the people at the time of its ratification, then we have to overcome the "received wisdom" about what constitutional law is. The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Constitution is an important step in that direction.

The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Constitution (Politically Incorrect Guides) (The Politically Incorrect Guides)

Regnery

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Kevin R. C.Gutzman. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Kevin R. C.Gutzman

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Kevin R. C.Gutzman. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Who Killed the Constitution?: The Fate of American Liberty from World War I to George W. Bush

Virginia's American Revolution: From Dominion to Republic, 1776-1840

Virginia's American Revolution: From Dominion to Republic, 1776-1840

The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Constitution (Politically Incorrect Guides) (The Politically Incorrect Guides)