Between Authority and Liberty: State Constitution-making in Revolutionary America [Paperback]

Marc W. Kruman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 4, 1999 | ISBN-10: 0807847976 | ISBN-13: 978-0807847978

In a major reinterpretation of American political thought in the revolutionary era, Marc Kruman explores the process of constitution making in each of the thirteen original states and shows that the framers created a distinctively American science of politics well before the end of the Confederation era. Suspicious of all government power, state constitution makers greatly feared arbitrary power and mistrusted legislators' ability to represent the people's interests. For these reasons, they broadened the suffrage and introduced frequent elections as a check against legislative self-interest. This analysis challenges Gordon Wood's now-classic argument that, at the beginning of the Revolution, the founders placed great faith in legislators as representatives of the people. According to Kruman, revolutionaries entrusted state constitution making only to members of temporary provincial congresses or constitutional conventions whose task it was to restrict legislative power. At the same time, Americans maintained a belief in the existence of a public good that legislators and magistrates, when properly curbed by one another and by a politically active citizenry, might pursue.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Kruman•s work deserves the serious attention of anyone examining the origins and development of the American constitutional republic.

Law and History Review

A classic work!

Journal of American History

A valuable contribution to a rich literature on the creation of state constitutions in the revolutionary era.

Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography

Important reading for anyone interested in the basic political ideas of the founders.

North Carolina Historical Review

Kruman's study is replete with insights about the subtleties of state constitution-making in 1776-77.

Journal of the Early Republic

From the Inside Flap

Explores the process of constitution making in each of the thirteen original states and shows that the framers greatly feared arbitrary power and mistrusted legislators• ability to represent the people•s interests. For these reasons, they broadened the suffrage and introduced frequent elections as a check against legislative self-interest. Kruman•s analysis challenges Gordon Wood•s now-classic argument that, at the beginning of the Revolution, the founders placed great faith in legislators as representatives of the people.

Product Details

• Paperback: 238 pages
• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press (August 4, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807847976
• ISBN-13: 978-0807847978
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,512,538 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Taking on the Master, December 4, 2005

By 

Peter J. Smith "Grad Student" (Detroit, MI) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Between Authority and Liberty: State Constitution-making in Revolutionary America (Paperback)

This book is an attempt to correct Gordon Wood's "Creation of the American Republic." In it, Kruman disagrees with Wood by saying that the republicanism that guided the American Revolution had already presented itself in the colonies in the form of State Constitutions.


By taking on the Master, Kruman has given the academic world a fresh look at the republican ideology that drove the American Revolution (his second chapter is worth the price of admission). Perhaps no scholar in the subsequent 200 plus years since the Revolution, has offered the idea that State Constitutions are the reason why the American Revolution was so radical.