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The Making of America: The Substance and Meaning of the Constitution by W. Cleon Skousen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
5 STARS! I've read this book, several times as I taught my class on the Constitution. It's a hard book to beat!
This is definitely the second book anyone in America should ever read to understand the Constitution! (The first book being The 5,000 Year Leap by the same author.)
This book, I like to say, is the "dissection" of the U.S. Constitution. It was 40 yrs in the making by the author, traveling around the world and gathering mainly primary sources for all definitions, explanations, and expounding on all-things-Constitution and Founders' intent and understanding.
This book will teach the reader about every single "Provision" found in the Constitution. What is a "provision"? Well, you dissect the Constitution by Article, then Section, then Clause, normally. But if you dig deeper into each clause you find the provisions - or in other words, the sentences. Yes, sentence by sentence, this book dissects the Constitution, telling not only what that sentence meant in the eyes of the Founders, and how it has come to mean what it means today (sometimes those are the same, sometimes they are different meanings), but it also teaches the history and intent behind each provision, each clause, each section and article - why the Founders included it, and even why they did not include certain other "provisions" - making sense out of the entire Constitution and it's true meaning and application.
Something that stands out from reading this, is the understanding that the Founders did not create this Heaven-inspired document for an agrarian, antiquated society, but they wrote it with Human Nature in mind - something they knew very well never changes. They were looking down the corridors of history - past and future - when they created this document of all documents. Hence in their view the Constitution was not a "living" Constitution, in the manner we define that today; but rather it was a bolting-down of the formal governance of this republic so that the "whims of men" (aka: "fads", "feelings", etc.) would not drag our nation from one end of the political spectrum (Anarchy on the rigth) to the other end (Tyranny on the left). This Constitution is applicable to all people throughout all the ages of the world - indeed, it encapsulated the Lord's intent for all His children throughout the world.
Secondly, something that also stands out repeatedly is how this Constitution truly was written for a moral and religious people, just as John Adams stated and as Benjamin Franklin intimated, and it is wholly inadequate to the governance of any other. I think in 2019+ we are seeing the real application of that principle, as we see a society losing more and more of its morality and religious base, and as a consequence a society that is devolving and becoming more savage not only in its communication but in its manner of living and behavior as well.
A third important point is the definition of things such as "militia", "separation of church and state", and more such misinterpreted phrases that today are flung about as if they mean one thing, but in reality mean a completely opposite thing. This books lays out the history and background of each of these, as the student/reader proceeds through the pages.
In all, it is the most perfect book there is on the Constitution. I choose those words with preciseness and meaning.
Highly recommended for people ages 14+ (the reader must have a good grasp of the English language as many quotes are shared and principles explained in ways that people no longer seem to understand, since our government schools and lackadaisical grammar in today's authors have seemed to "dumb down" our population.) A MUST READ.
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