Customer Reviews

The Declaration of Independence and Constitution of the United States (Signet Classics)

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This is an excellent read. Very well written and easy to read!! You don't have to have a law degree to undestand :)

Love that at Amazon, it's one stop shopping. I can find all the summer reading book assignments for my kids in one place and all came within 2 weeks so they have the summer to get to work. good price and delivery

This book serves a useful purpose: providing an accessible introduction to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution (including the Bill of Rights). It also includes the full original texts of both, although you have to look them up - the author's approach is to start with his own explanation, and only then expose the reader (duly prepared, as it were) to the rigors of the actual document. The Constitution, for example, is introduced with the following words: "The Constitution of the United States follows. If you have read this [sic] simplified, explained text carefully and studied the vocabulary, you should be able to understand the Constitution as it was originally written. Try, and see".

The explanatory text assumes very little knowledge - either of history, politics, or for that matter the English language. For instance, the first section on "Words You Need to Know" offers explanations of "subject", "British Constitution", "antiroyalist", "ally", "British Parliament", "charter", "legislature", "dissolve", "sovereignty", and so on. (Incidentally, the explanation of "sovereignty" given is simply "independence", which may strike you as inadequate; the Concise Oxford English Dictionary defines the word as meaning "supreme power or authority... the authority of a state to govern itself or another state"). However, the author's approach does fit his goal of making sure that even readers with little education end up with a thorough grasp of the material. I felt rather uncomfortable once or twice when the author seemed to be telling the reader what the words of the Constitution "really mean" (in his own language). But surely that is begging the question? The Constitution says what it says, and if there is any doubt about its meaning it is up to the courts to decide. Then again, there is probably no harm as long as the reader does not take the author's interpretation as Gospel truth.

So if you already know a fair amount about history and politics, this book is likely to be too elementary for you (although it does provide the original text of the key documents). On the other hand, if you are unsure about these subjects or have a limited English vocabulary, you may find it is just what you need.

So the book was great up until page 52. Then it skipped to page 101, went up through 132, then started again at page 85. After that, the pages were in order. I don't know what happened to pages 53-84...who knows what book they're in!