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The Heritage Guide to the Constitution: Fully Revised Second Edition Hardcover – September 15, 2014

by David F. Forte (Editor), Matthew Spalding (Editor), Edwin Meese III (Foreword)

4.8 377 ratings

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A landmark work of more than one hundred scholars, The Heritage Guide to the Constitution is a unique line-by-line analysis explaining every clause of America's founding charter and its contemporary meaning.

In this fully revised second edition, leading scholars in law, history, and public policy offer more than two hundred updated and incisive essays on every clause of the Constitution.

From the stirring words of the Preamble to the Twenty-seventh Amendment, you will gain new insights into the ideas that made America, important debates that continue from our Founding, and the Constitution's true meaning for our nation.

Print length

500 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Regnery
Publication date

September 15, 2014
Dimensions

6 x 2 x 9 inches
ISBN-10

1621572684
ISBN-13

978-1621572688
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Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

The indispensable reference to the U.S. Constitution now fully revised and updated

Law students and attorneys, policy makers and ordinary citizens turn to The Heritage Guide to the Constitution for insight into every clause of the most important governing charter in history.

First published in 2005, this unique and essential resource is a landmark in the rise of the originalist school of constitutional interpretation. This revised edition takes into account a decade of Supreme Court decisions and legal scholarship on such issues as gun rights, religious freedom, campaign finance, civil rights, and health care reform.

The Founding Fathers' guiding principles remain unchanged, yet a number of Supreme Court decisions over the last decade are a reminder that those principles require a constant and spirited defense. The Heritage Guide is the first place to turn for every layman, student, lawyer, and jurist preparing himself to join in that defense.

Scholars David Forte and Matthew Spalding have brought together 114 of their fellow experts in law, history, and public policy to offer an authoritative and accessible introduction to every clause of the U.S. Constitution, explaining its meaning, its history, and why it matters.

From the Back Cover

The indispensable reference to the U.S. Constitution -- now fully revised and updated

Law students and attorneys, policy makers and ordinary citizens turn to The Heritage Guide to the Constitution for insight into every clause of the most important governing charter in history.

First published in 2005, this unique and essential resource is a landmark in the rise of the originalist school of constitutional interpretation. This revised edition takes into account a decade of Supreme Court decisions and legal scholarship on such issues as gun rights, religious freedom, campaign finance, civil rights, and health care reform.

The Founding Fathers' guiding principles remain unchanged, yet a number of Supreme Court decisions over the last decade are a reminder that those principles require a constant and spirited defense. The Heritage Guide is the first place to turn for every layman, student, lawyer, and jurist preparing himself to join in that defense.

Scholars David Forte and Matthew Spalding have brought together 114 of their fellow experts in law, history, and public policy to offer an authoritative and accessible introduction to every clause of the U.S. Constitution, explaining its meaning, its history, and why it matters.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Regnery; 2nd ed. edition (September 15, 2014)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 500 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1621572684
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1621572688
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 3.38 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 2 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #207,864 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #109 in Constitutions (Books)
- #149 in General Constitutional Law
- #303 in United States National Government

Customer Reviews:
4.8 377 ratings

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About the author

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Matthew Spalding

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Dr. Matthew Spalding is an expert in and teaches constitutional history, is an Adjunct Fellow of the Claremont Institute, and is the Director of the B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies at the Heritage Foundation.

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4.8 out of 5

377 global ratings

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former

Well written by recognized experts.

Reviewed in the United States on February 21, 2024

Verified Purchase

Excellent reference book or can be used to learn our Constitution. Easy to read and well explained without bias. based on original meaning/intent/ interpretation and case law and as a reference/research book or go to authority on the Constitution. If you want to learn provisions of the constitution at a glance without being in law school this is the book. Excellent for lawyers and layman alike.

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David E. Willson

If you care about truth in history, this book should be along side your Bible.

Reviewed in the United States on July 21, 2021

Verified Purchase

It's a hefty book filled with history of our country's basic tenets and the law of the land. You'll learn what we are doing right and what we have strayed afield from. How we are turning this into a nation of slaves to the government elite unless we got back on the right path; which a majority of Americans believe we have failed to follow; including the left, right, and middle.

One person found this helpful

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Grams

God bless & help America!

Reviewed in the United States on February 26, 2022

Verified Purchase

Beautifully written and presented. What incredibly wise and Godly men our forefathers were! We cannot let our beautiful country be destroyed from the bottom up! God help us!

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Jimmy R. Duhaime

This is, second to the Bible a must have commentary for the citizen of the United States of America.

Reviewed in the United States on June 1, 2021

Verified Purchase

I study the Bible daily and a big part of that is reading commentary or studies of others who have insight into what the passages mean. This book from Hillsdale College is a commentary on the Constitution of America, but is more than opinion; it is real truth.

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Serious

Excellent! Scholarly, articles written by various authors. Good foundational and in-depth reading

Reviewed in the United States on December 25, 2021

Verified Purchase

This should be required reading in every high school in the US. Those of us who did not get a high quality civics or constitution course should buy it and study it.

Reviewed in the United States on March 2, 2021

Verified Purchase

Was required to buy this for my law school class in Constitutional Law. Great book to have, not just as a law student but also for the everyday citizen to really know the Constitution. Has great explanations of each Article and Amendment.

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secinv

For the most part, the book is worth reading for any knowledge-seeking constitutionalist.

Reviewed in the United States on February 14, 2021

Verified Purchase

The reader is told in the introduction that The Heritage Guide to the U.S. Constitution was written to “provide a brief and accurate explanation of each clause of the Constitution as envisioned by the Framers and as applied in contemporary law” that will be “accessible and helpful for informed citizens and students of the Constitution generally.” The Guide is an ambitious effort that employed nearly 100 prominent and accomplished constitutional scholars to write in-depth essays about every facet of the U.S. Constitution. While it is amazingly informative, its fault lies in its overly substantial deference to the national government, which does not reflect the true nature of our founding document's ratification.

The preface to the Guide explains that it utilized three sources: the records and debates of the constitutional convention, The Federalist Papers, and Joseph Story’s Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States. While the first two sources are vitally important, the third was published almost 30 years after the ratification. Not only is it not legally binding whatsoever, but it was also biased in favor of a nationalist vision. The story, along with Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, Daniel Webster, John Marshal,l and eventually Abraham Lincoln, all twisted the details of the ratification to argue for a nationalist and even a monarchist vision of a much stronger central government than what was actually created at the ratification.

Noted legal scholar of the day and prominent Jeffersonian republican Abel P. Upshur actually wrote an entire book to refute what he felt were misconceptions spread by Story’s Commentaries. Upshur criticized Story for construing the Constitution from the small Federalist faction's perspective at the convention and ignoring the ratification's true historical nature. Upshur argued that doing so betrays the very Constitution itself and enables a runaway central government to trample the sovereignty of the states as well as the individual rights of American citizens.

In Upshur’s book A Brief Enquiry into the True Nature and Character of our Federal Government, he wrote the “principle that ours is a consolidated government of all the people of the United States, and not a confederation of sovereign states must necessarily render it little less than omnipotent. That principle, carried out to its legitimate results, will assuredly render the federal government the strongest in the world… Upon the theory that it possesses all the powers of the government, there is nothing to check, nothing to control it.”

Upshur even hypothesized what would happen under this scenario where the states had no recourse but to do as the federal government dictated. “Let it be supposed that a certain number of States, containing a majority of the people of all the States, should find it to their interest to pass laws oppressive to the minority, and violating their rights as secured by the Constitution. What redress is there upon the principles of Judge Story? Is it to be found in the federal tribunals? They are themselves a part of the oppressing government and are, therefore, not impartial judges of the powers of that government…. Under such a system as this, it is a cruel mockery to talk about the rights of the minority. If they possess rights, they have no means to vindicate them…. This is the despotism of the worst sort, in a system like ours.”

Upshur’s criticisms still ring true today, where an all-powerful centralized super-state has replaced the constitutional republic of old. This expansive government growth only occurred because centralizers similar to Story successfully changed the Constitution from restraining federal power to being a source of unlimited national power. A truly Jeffersonian republican analysis of the Constitution, which was part of this nation’s fabric up through the 18th century, would take into account the subjective understanding of the ratifiers, which the public debates can infer at the different state conventions as well as assurances as to the nature of the proposed central government made by advocates of ratification. This analysis always concludes that the Constitution created a minimal central government entrusted only with specifically enumerated powers. The Guide’s failure to view the Constitution from this perspective is painfully noticeable regarding its essay on the Supreme Court's jurisdiction, which is much broader than what was originally authorized.

Still, most of the scholarly research in the book is extremely well done and certainly worth reading. It concisely makes the following astute and correct assertions: The General Welfare clause is “negative, not positive — a limitation on power, not a grant of power”; the spending clause of Article I is limited “only to further ends specifically enumerated elsewhere in the Constitution,” and the “Interstate Commerce” clause applied only to the free commerce of goods between the states rather than the open-ended grant of legislative power to Congress that it has been held out to be since the New Deal.

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Awesome

Reviewed in the United States on February 28, 2022

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This shop is awesome, I didn’t expect to revolve this delivered within the same weeks!!! Thanks

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