American Epic A Reader's Guide to the U.S. Constitution

Author: Garrett Epps
Publisher: Oxford University Press USA
ISBN: 9780199974740
Published In: September 2013
Format: Hardback , 272 pages
Jurisdiction: U.S. ? Disclaimer:
Countri(es) stated herein are used as reference only

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Walks the reader through all the articles and sections of the Constitution, presenting an analysis of what their various 'takeaways' are.
Filled with fascinating anecdotes, interesting history, and original insights
Written in a fluent, reader-friendly style.

The Constitution is about to turn 225 years old, and throughout its long history, attempts to discern its meaning have dominated American politics. Indeed, arguments over its meaning are more animated today than ever given the popularity of the Tea Party, whose adherents demand strict adherence to what they regard as its true, original meaning. It is therefore not surprising that deep interest among the lay public in the Constitution's text is often associated with a very specific fundamentalist approach to interpretation.

In American Epic, the eminent legal scholar Garrett Epps also reads the constitution closely, but with a very different aim. He shares his own interpretations of the text of the U.S. Constitution-as law, as poetry, as narrative, and as What the Framers Intended-both as a guide and an inspiration for others as they explore the document for themselves and find their own approaches. He shows that it is possible to pay close attention to each word and sentence in the Constitution without interpreting it narrowly; to engage with the text not searching for one meaning, but many. A fluid and engaging writer, Epps' learned and surprising reading of the Constitution will make readers look at the document in an entirely new way.

Readership: General readers, students and scholars of Constitutional Law

Preface
Preamble: <"Tell me, Muse, how it all began>"
Article I: A Tale of Two Cities
Article II: Under the Bramble Bush
Article III: Solomon's Sword
Article IV: All God's Chidren
Article V: Alter or Abolish
Article VI: The Supreme Law of the Land
Article VII: Bloodless and Successful
Last Things

Garrett Epps is Professor of Law at the University of Baltimore Law School. He is a former staff writer for theWashington Post, and has also written numerous articles and editorials in The New York Times, The New Republic, The New York Review of Books, and The Atlantic. Two of his nonfiction books, Democracy Reborn(Henry Holt, 2006) and To An Unknown God (St. Martin's, 2001), have been finalists for the American Bar Association's Silver Gavel Award. He has also written two novels, including The Shad Treatment, which won the Lillian Smith Book Award.