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Binding: PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 973 EAN: 9781596914919 ISBN: 1596914912 Label: Bloomsbury USA Manufacturer: Bloomsbury USA Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 304 Publication Date: October 14, 2008 Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Release Date: October 14, 2008 Studio: Bloomsbury USA Editorial Review: Product Description: “Lane and Oreskes … remind us of how essential the Constitution is to our nationhood and why it's important for the country to rekindle the constitutional conscience as we face the challenges of the twenty-first century.”—Cokie Roberts, ABC News and NPR, author of Founding Mothers The United States is the longest-running democracy in history at 220 years. While many countries around the world have used our Constitution as their model, Americans are growing frustrated with gridlock, partisan politics, and special interests. In our impatience for results, we have lost sight of what the framers invented—a pragmatic document that channels self-interest into productive consensus. Veteran journalist Michael Oreskes and legal scholar Eric Lane make a passionate plea to restore our “constitutional conscience.” They challenge us to let this great document work as it was designed—valuing political process over product—and ask us to lean on the framers and their experience. Unless we reconnect with the document so central to our success, the democracy we hold dear will be at risk. Average Rating:
 Rating: - A guidepost and a wakeup call - that needs just one more chapter!Genius of America is a historical commentary and analysis of the making of the Constitution of the United States. Authors Lane and Oreskes show that the Constitution was born out of difficult struggles, political, economical, and civic that helped to sharpen and clarify important principles and values needed to establish liberty. They assert that American's have gradually forgotten the important values and principles that make up our constitution. These are the values and principles that framers ... Read More Rating: - Understanding Our Constitution - Then and NowI read The Genius of America with great interest, both from an historical perspective as well as a view on the current application in our country today. The book was brief and succinct but powerful. Although I have studied American history, it gave me a summary not only of decisions made but the important rationale behind these decisions. It's an amazing tribute to the Framers that a relatively short document could withstand over 200 years of use and scrutiny and still be as meaningful in 2007. ... Read More Rating: - Should be required reading for allI'm a business person--not student, not a scholar. This book is fantastic--readable, digestible, and incredibly well-written. It does a great job of presenting the information, and avoiding the typical pitfalls of trying to use a modified version of history to support a political view. It was interesting to read, and it kept my attention through-out. The modern day tie-ins are great as well; the examples of the Constitution's struggles and victories are well-presented. My hunch is that scholars will ... Read More Rating:  - Worked Great Up Until Now; However, the Future is Cloudy"The Genius of America" provides an inspiring review of why our Constitution was built the way it was, how it has lasted through the years, and brought equality to minorities and women. However, it has not been "fool-proof" - eg., both Lincoln, FDR and Bush II blatantly violated the Constitution during war years, and the problem is getting worse. Recent years have also shown how vulnerable our government is to selection of Supreme Court Justices' biases. However, the biggest American constitution ... Read More Rating: - Required reading (the quiz? look around you)The right of habeas corpus, established in England in 1215, is a glory of the American Constitution. But when habeas corpus was effectively abolished at the federal level in 2006 --- not by a Constitutional amendment, but via the Military Commissions Act --- few howled. You may wonder why. The answer is partly political: That legislation was ostensibly aimed at terrorists, and in Washington you have only to say the T-word to transform even passionate defenders of the Constitution into lapdogs ... Read More |
