Bøger af John Vile

From distinguished author John R. Vile comes a new history of the American early republic period, presented through primary documents that are illuminated and explained in context.This new book in the Documents Decoded series provides readers with an understanding of the key documents and debates in the early American republic-from the presidency of George Washington through that of John Quincy Adams. With more than 50 edited primary documents relevant to American history from 1789 through 1828, the primary source material is organized in sections that will help readers to identify and appreciate multiple perspectives on key issues.The primary documents in this reference volume include laws, sermons, presidential speeches, court decisions, proclamations, treaties, and debates that will illuminate key issues such as the structure of government, the protection of individual rights, slavery, and the respective rights of the state and national governments. Examples subjects include Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson's debates, the Alien and Sedition Acts, the Louisiana Purchase Treaty, "The Star-Spangled Banner," the Monroe Doctrine, and the Missouri Compromise of 1820.

Written by a renowned expert on the American Founding period, this book examines selections of key documents from 1215 through 1791 that were instrumental to the development of the U.S. Constitution and the American political tradition.The latest addition to ABC-CLIO's popular Documents Decoded series, John R. Vile's Founding Documents of America presents historic documents key to the foundations of our nation's government accompanied by introductions that supply background information and analysis that highlights key provisions and provide historical context. The coverage extends beyond the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights to provide contextual understanding of a wide range of other documents, such as private diary entries and political polemics, that will further readers' understanding of the United States' founding and early political development.The documents are organized chronologically into four sections: constitutional antecedents; the revolutionary and confederal periods; calling and convening the Constitutional Convention; and debating, ratifying, implementing, and amending the new Constitution. Through its more than 50 primary source documents-from the Magna Carta of 1215 through the Bill of Rights, which was adopted in 1791-this book will serve high school and college students seeking to understand the documents that laid the foundations for the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights, and provide opportunities for student readers to build critical thinking skills.

Since 1787, only twenty-seven amendments have been proposed by two-thirds majorities in Congress and ratified by three-fourths of the states. During this same time, members of Congress have introduced more than eleven and a half thousand proposals, and states have filed close to four hundred additional petitions for constitutional conventions to propose amendments.These four volumes edited and introduced by John R. Vile collect and update compilations of lists of proposed amendments and convention petitions that have been scattered about in a variety of governmental reports. They also reprint classic studies by Herman Ames and Michael Musmanno that analyzed amending proposals introduced during the nation's early years. The work includes texts of basic constitutional documents like the Articles of Confederation, the U.S. Constitution and its amendments, and the Confederate Constitution, as well as a comprehensive index of all amendments proposed through 2001. This fourth volume, which covers the years 2001-2021, replaces an earlier supplement that covered the years 2001-2010. Dr. John R. Vile (Ph.D., University of Virginia) is a Professor of Political Science and Dean of the University Honors College at Middle Tennessee State University. His other books on the constitutional amending process include the Encyclopedia of Constitutional Amendments, Proposed Amendments, and Amending Issues: 1789-2015 (4th ed., 2015), Conventional Wisdom: The Alternate Article V Mechanism for Proposing Amendments to the U.S. Constitution (2016) and Re-Framers: 170 Eccentric, Visionary, and Patriotic Proposals to Rewrite the U.S. Constitution (2014). His recent publications include A Companion to the U.S. Constitution and Its Amendments (7th ed., 2021), Essential Supreme Court Decisions: Summaries of Leading Cases in U.S. Constitutional Law (18th ed., 2022), The Constitutional Convention of 1787: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of America's Founding (rev. ed., 2016), America's National Anthem: "The Star-Spangled Banner" in U.S. History, Culture and Law (2021), The Bible in American Law and Politics: A Reference Guide (2020), The Liberty Bell and Its Legacy: An Encyclopedia of an American Icon in U.S. History and Culture (2020), The Declaration of Independence: America's First Founding Document in U.S. History and Culture (2019), More Than a Plea for a Declaration of Rights: The Constitutional and Political Thought of George Mason of Virginia (2019), The American Flag: An Encyclopedia of the Stars and Stripes in U.S. History, Culture and Law (2018) and Governmental Responses to Natural Disasters in the U.S.: A Documentary History (2018). He is the co-editor of The Encyclopedia of the First Amendment, which is now online at https://mtsu.edu/first-amendment/encyclopedia. xiii, [1], 15-171 pp.

Since the Reconstruction period, there have been over forty proposals to rewrite the U.S. Constitution. John Vile's unique historical study analyzes all of these proposals within the framework of the constitutional amending process. In each case Vile examines the substance of the proposal, its goals and methods, the response to the proposal, and its overall influence--concluding that the Constitution in its current form faces no immediate threats. He finds no convincing cases for a new Constitution and believes that most perceived defects can be remedied with less drastic measures.The study illuminates issues of constitutional change, stressing the importance of understanding alternative forms of government and the basis for their support. While immediate change is not likely, constitutional change will ultimately come, and when it does, earlier criticisms and suggestions may help to set the agenda. Proposals for change are critiques which help to identify strengths and weaknesses in the current system. In addition, examinations of past proposals reveal how people view the Constitution during crises. This work will be particularly useful for political scientists, historians, lawyers, and individuals interested in, or involved with, efforts for constitutional change.