Description: Americans widely believe that the U.S. Constitution was almost wholly created when it was drafted in 1787 and ratified in 1788. Jonathan Gienapp recovers the unknown story of the Constitution's second creation in the decade after its adoption--a story with explosive implications for current debates over constitutional originalism and interpretation.
Brief description: Jonathan Gienapp is Assistant Professor of History at Stanford University. A scholar of early American political culture, he has written several articles on early constitutional history and modern constitutional theory and interpretation that speak to current political concerns.
Review Quotes: The greatest innovation of the American Revolution was the idea of a written constitution as supreme fundamental law. But another truly significant development immediately followed the ratification of the Constitution: the equally innovative but deeply controversial invention of modes of constitutional interpretation. Jonathan Gienapp explores how this process unfolded, brilliantly explaining the search for the original meaning of the Constitution.--Jack N. Rakove, author of A Politician Thinking: The Creative Mind of James Madison