If someone put a gun to my head, and said “quick, name the ten most essential books on the American Constitution,” I would say:
The Federalist Papers, Hamilton, Jay, & Madison. The edition edited by Kesler has the best introduction and notes, and I once laid out the most important numbers to study.
Readings in American Government, ed. by Nichols & Nichols
The Anti-Federalist Papers and the Constitutional Convention Debates, ed. by Ralph Ketcham.
How Democratic Is the Constitution? ed. by Goldwin & Schambra. The highlights are the essential essays by Joseph Bessette and Wilson Carey McWilliams, which can be obtained in other volumes.
Vindicating the Founders, Thomas West.
The Natural Rights Republic, Michael Zuckert. Best book on the Declaration we have, although it is necessary to supplement it with the earliest chapters of R.L. Bruckberger, Images of America, and with Lawler below.
Liberal Democracy & Political Science, James Ceaser. Wide-ranging, with essential chapters on the Federalist, Tocqueville, the role of political science, its connection to political philosophy, and why we love to use compound terms when speaking of modern democracy.
Novus Ordo Seclorum: The Intellectual Origins of the Constitution, Forrest McDonald. One of its chapter describes the main events of the 1787 Convention, which you might usefully supplement with larger accounts by Richard Beeman or Michael Klarman.
The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787, Gordon Wood. Disliked by Thomas West for being too influenced by the “republican interpretation,” but masterful scholarship and writing nonetheless.
Interpreting the American Founding, Alan Gibson. Reviews the main differences of the leading theoretical and historical interpretations. Very helpful when you’re still getting used to this literature.
Understanding the American Founding, Alan Gibson. Fills out the previous volume, and gives you clear articulations of the most-plausible “left-ish” critiques of the founders, especially regarding Jefferson on slavery. Pairs well with Zuckert.
Crisis of the Two Constitutions, Charles Kesler. Most up-to-date book here, with one discussion of Trump. Also the best general presentation of Claremont-school ideas, collecting several decades of essays, including one key one on the Founding. For needed expansion of what Kesler says here on the administrative state, see the Chris DeMuth essay “Congress Incongruous.” For study of Harry Jaffa, the founder of the Claremont school, see the recent books on him by Steven Hayward and Glenn Ellmers, and his own landmark books on Lincoln.
Woodrow Wilson and the Roots of Modern Liberalism, Ronald Pestritto. The key book on the Claremont-school interpretation of progressivism.
The Rise of Modern Judicial Review, Christopher Wolfe. (Not our CJ Wolfe!) The p’s and q’s on the Supreme Court and the eventual need for an explicit commitment to originalism, which you might supplement with some of Scalia’s dissents and speeches. For the best Supreme Court case-selecting/editing textbook, get Rossum and Tarr, American Constitutional Law.
Aliens in America, Peter Augustine Lawler. Some of the topics discussed here he wrote about in greater detail in later books, especially A Constitution in Full, but the main features of his interpretation of America and its constitutional order may be found in this 2002 volume, in its chapters on James Ceaser, William Galston, John Courtney Murray, and Michael Zuckert/Thomas Jefferson.
Yes, they would have to shoot me to make me stop at ten, and I even cheated with fifteen! And I left quite a few fine ones off…none of the biography-shaped books, none of the straight narrative history ones, and only two constitutional-law titles.
For an example of what can be learned from these books about how to think about what is America, see my best-ever essay “The Five Conceptions of American Liberty.” It owes most to my interactions with Ceaser (especially all the documents and original sources he had me read and teach when he was starting the UVA Program on Constitutionalism and Democracy course back in 2006, many of which are in the Nichols & Nichols book) and with Lawler (especially his essay “Putting Locke in the Locke-box” from Stuck with Virtue), although the influence of Gibson and McWilliams are also detectable.
As for my best Postmodern Conservative pieces on more nitty-gritty and con-law-oriented issues of American constitutionalism, I think they likely are:
a.) “Wanted: Democrat Leaders Who Forthrightly Support the Constitution,” 2013.
b.) “Mark Levin, Meet Herbert Croly,” 2013. My controversial (and yet originalist-to-the-core) proposal for making amendment easier.
c.) “Democracy’s ‘Doom,’ and the Unserious Constitutionalism of Vox,” 2015. My takedown of a widely-read piece by one of 2021’s “slinker-apostates” from liberal-democracy, Matthew Yglesias. It also links to a fine Ceaser video.
So, happy Constitution Day, and let us know in the comments about any books or essays you think are essential reading on America’s constitutional order, whether considered in a broad spirit or in terms of the nitty-gritty. I am quite aware that in the wake of 2020-22, a period I have classified as The Great Betrayal, which included not a little apostasy from basic liberal-democratic rights and constitutionalism across the world, some of these books and pieces will seem dated. I am not yet seeing anyone supplying the constitutional-politics leadership we need now, sketching a stance that brings the 90s-through-10s conservative commitments to originalism, Founderism, liberal-democracy, and natural rights into the alternately dire and surreal situation of the 20s, when even the last two of those commitments are now useless for building bridges to mainstream Democrat politicians, and all four are often used as cloaks by RINOs. Michael Anton’s The Stakes from late 2020 perhaps comes the closest to suggesting the adjustments in rhetorical emphasis needed. (I should add that I do not at all see the needed direction, despite my general admiration for Josh Hammer and Hadley Arkes, in the suspiciously ballyhooed idea of “common-good constitutionalism”—see James Stoner for the best critique of that idea.)
Still, every good account of the populist-conservative politics needed for this present season eventually hopes for a time when a decisive majority of American citizens can be returned to taking the Constitution seriously—and so let us keep studying fine books like the ones listed above, or begin to do so, learning and treasuring their lessons for the possible coming of that day.
Well done, Carl, bringing the years of academic work & scholarship to the digital realm: You should design an entire course around these volumes!
Agree with Titus!
For the entire sweep of con law, I still find the two volume, The American Constitution: Its Origins and Development ,by Kelly/Harbison/and Belz quite useful.
I don't find the Zuckert treatment of the Declaration of Independence to be the best available, although it's always good to see the logic of the text. He leaves out God! (I know that Peter brings that in.)
On the other hand, I'd suggest a book by Michael Zuckert that unfortunately hasn't seen the light of day. I think his work on the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments is better than 99% of what's out there. His notion of "completing the Constitution" is spot-on, and his structural treatment of the 14th Amendment in a Publius article (1993?) is the best treatment of that amendment I've ever read. It shows what a disaster for con law and the course of our country the erroneous interpretation of it in the Slaughterhouse Cases was.