Essays on the Making of the Constitution

Leonard W. Levy, Editor. Essays on the Making of the Constitution, Second Edition. 
New York: Oxford University Press, 1987.

This Second edition of a book originally published in 1969 still serves a useful purpose. A lengthy introduction by the editor establishes the context--the nationalist "Spirit of '76" which failed to take institutional or political form in the early months of the Revolution immediately following the Declaration of Independence would ultimately be revived and codified in the Constitution. Levy, in other words, does not play the impartial curator of historiography; he has his own point of view. In fact, he not only writes an introduction to each reading, he also gets the "last word" in with his own essay on the Bill of Rights at the end of the volume.

Naturally,the book begins with a selection of passages from "An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution" by Charles Beard, and not surprisingly much of the selections which follow are direct responses to Beard's essential argument. Levy's brief introductions establish the context for each selection, and the selections in general--including Merrill Jensen, Jackson T. Main, and John P. Roche--cover many of the seminal works on post-Beard Constitutional scholarship.

This short volume is an excellent "crash-course" in the subject, and a handy resource for students and scholars alike.