Book Talk: The Constitution of 1789

Join Professor Ilan Wurman to discuss his latest publication, The Constitution of 1789. Published by the Cambridge University Press, this book is a new introduction to the Constitution written on the semiquincentennial of American Independence, packed with novel and surprising insights about the Constitution's original meaning. 

Professor Wurman takes the reader on an in-depth tour of the Constitution's structure and separation of powers, starting with the nature of written constitutions and the compound nature of the American Union. The book also explores the enumeration of legislative powers and its relation to the historic royal prerogatives, the meaning of executive power, and the distribution of foreign affairs and war powers between Congress and the President. It investigates the nature of judicial power and the Constitution's complex relationship with slavery, before addressing federalism and the scope of national powers. The Constitution of 1789 dismantles several common misconceptions and conventional wisdoms and is suitable for all readers interested in the law, politics, and history of the American Republic.

Purchase The Constitution of 1789. Books will also be available for purchase at the reception.

Reviews

‘An impressively sweeping yet accessible interpretation of the Constitution through the lens of originalism, the method that now prevails on the Supreme Court. Wurman powerfully illuminates debates among originalists on how their method applies to crucial questions. He intervenes in those debates with sophistication, wit and scholarly zest.’
Nicholas Parrillo - William K. Townsend Professor of Law and Professor of History, Yale University, and author of Against the Profit Motive: The Salary Revolution in American Government, 1780 –1940

‘Comprehensive, clear-headed and packed with essential information, The Constitution of 1789 is terrific one-stop shopping to our nation's founding document – and to many of the great issues of the modern era.'
Cass R. Sunstein - Robert Walmsley University Professor, Harvard University, and author, How to Interpret the Constitution

‘This is a marvelous – simultaneously sophisticated and accessible – introduction to the world of structural constitutionalism. It provokes careful thought on virtually every page.'
Gary Lawson - University of Florida Levin College of Law, and co-author of ‘A Great Power of Attorney': Understanding the Fiduciary Constitution

‘Lucid, careful, precise, intelligent, eminently sensible, and a pleasure to read - this exposition of the meaning of the Constitution ratified by the people of the United States in 1788 is unexcelled. Students, legal scholars, historians, and politically alert laymen will find it indispensable.’
Paul A. Rahe - Professor of History, Hillsdale College, and author of Republics Ancient and Modern