Constitutional Myths: What We Get Wrong and How to Get It Right

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With the entry of the Tea Party onto the US political scene, America's Constitution has become a political battleground, with liberals and conservatives trading fire over its meaning and intent. Amid all the hubbub, historian Ray Raphael was struck by how much both sides got wrong, and how falsehoods have largely overtaken history in Americans' understanding of the nation's most important document. In Constitutional Myths, he sorts out the truth from fiction, juxtaposing what historians know about the Constitution with what most Americans and politicians think they know.

Reviews

Praise for Constitutional Myths:
"Take off your rose-colored glasses, people: The Founding Fathers embraced a strong federal government, at the risk of falling into anarchy and disintegration. Therein lies the kernel of the authors readable demystification of some of the ongoing crusades by conservatives touting the supremacy of originalism.With documents amply provided at the close of the text, Raphael provides a truly accessible teaching tool."
Kirkus

"Wonderfully lucid and highly informative."
Edward J. Larson, Pulitzer Prizewinning author of A Magnificent Catastrophe

[A]n adept corrective to some of the most strident imbalances in contemporary debates over the implications of the Founding.
Political Science Quarterly

An extraordinarily important and nuanced work of history that places the Constitution, and the men who created it, in their proper eighteenth-century context.
Richard R. Beeman, author of Plain Honest Men: The Making of the American Constitution.

Author Bio

Ray Raphael's seventeen books include "A People's History of the American Revolution," "The First American Revolution," "Founders," "Constitutional Myths," and "Founding Myths," all published by The New Press. He is currently a senior research fellow at Humboldt State University. He lives in Northern California, where he hikes and kayaks.