The making and breaking of the American Constitution : a thousand-year history / Mark Peterson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Peterson, Mark A., 1960- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

United States. Constitution.

United States.

Constitutional history--United States.

Constitutional history.

Physical Description:

viii, 394 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, [2026]

Summary:

"A provocative new history of America's Constitution and an urgent call to action for a nation confronted by challenges its founders could never have imagined. The American Revolution occurred at a time when Britain's constitutional order failed to adapt to the extraordinary growth of its colonies. The framers designed an American constitution to succeed where Britain's had faltered, planning for continuous population and territorial expansion that would eventually cross the continent. Yet by the end of the nineteenth century, it was already ill-suited for an increasingly urban, industrialized society, and the transformations of the twentieth century have pushed it to a breaking point. This book charts the history and aims of the American Constitution from its origins in an agrarian past to the grave crisis we face today. Mark Peterson traces the American constitutional tradition to the control of land in medieval England, showing how the founders incorporated the aspirations of Magna Carta with the administrative principles of the Domesday Book, a meticulous survey and valuation of landed property commissioned by William the Conqueror. This framework encouraged the growth of democratic self-government in a young nation. It also institutionalized the colonization of territory and the expulsion of Indigenous peoples, establishing a legal blueprint for transforming tribal lands into revenue-yielding real estate for settlers. Peterson's riveting narrative paints an arresting picture of a dynamic republic whose frame of government has changed enormously to meet the challenges of the modern age but whose written constitution has changed very little. Marking the 250th anniversary of American independence, The Making and Breaking of the American Constitution reveals how this widening disconnect threatens the very existence of our democracy. It calls for a constitution that sustains the ideals developed over the past thousand years while meeting the challenges of the future."-- Provided by vendor.

Contents:

Introduction: "Like a garment to the bodie" : on constitutional relationships

Part I. From domesday to independence, 1066-1776. Land, conquest, and the substance of constitutions : from England to America

Colonies and constitutions from Charter to independence

Part II. Making the United States, 1776-89. Independent states and the challenge of the west

Constitutional solutions before the Constitution

From convention to ratification : drafting a blueprint for a speculative empire

Part III. The domesday machine in action, 1790-1890. Two paths to westward expansion, north and south

The President who failed to bark : Jefferson, Louisiana, and constitutional change

The machine runs amok : expansion, slavery, and civil war

The machine stalls out : the challenge of the arid west

Part IV. A domesday book for the United States, 1890-1990. A union of three distinct sub-nations and the beginnings of constitutional reform

The great transformation : the making of a national government and a national society

The long crisis of the Constitution : governmental change and instrumental stasis in the twentieth century

Epilogue: Toward 2090 : rethinking the purpose of the United States.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 333-375) and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Peterson, Mark A., 1955- Making and breaking of the American constitution.

ISBN:

9780691180014

0691180016

OCLC:

1534117559

Publisher Number:

CIPO000335627