The United States Constitution

The U.S. Constitution: One Document, Many Choices is designed to provide an understanding of the document both by explaining its origins in Western political thought and by describing the institutions it created. It further compares these institutions to possible alternatives (e.g., how Congress differs from a Parliament, the President differs from a monarch, and the Supreme Court differs from a bevy of Platonic Guardians). The text explains that institutions within the national government and the division of powers between the nation and the states were designed, like limits of governmental power in the Bill of Rights and other amendments, to protect liberty. The volume is particularly suitable for students who are examining the Constitution for thefirst time, and it focused only on key Supreme Court decisions that have interpreted the Document. --