At stage center of the American drama, maintains David A. J. Richards,
is the attempt to understand the implications of the Reconstruction
Amendments--Amendments Thirteen, Fourteen, and Fifteen to the United
States Constitution. Richards evaluates previous efforts to interpret
the amendments and then proposes his own view: together the amendments
embodied a self-conscious rebirth of America's revolutionary,
rights-based constitutionalism. Building on an approach to
constitutional law developed in his Toleration and the Constitution
and Foundations of American Constitutionalism, Richards links history,
law, and political theory. In Conscience and the Constitution, this
method leads from an analysis of the Reconstruction Amendments to a
broad discussion of the American constitutional system as a whole.
Richards's interpretation focuses on the abolitionists and their
radical commitment to the "dissenting conscience." In his view, the
Reconstruction Amendments expressed not only the constitutional
arguments of a particular historical period but also a general
political theory developed by the abolitionists, who restructured the
American political community in terms of respect for universal human
rights. He argues further that the amendments make a claim on our
generation to keep faith with the vision of the "founders of 1865." In
specific terms he points out what such allegiance would mean in the
context of present-day constitutional issues. Originally published in
1993. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand
technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from
the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These
editions preserve the original texts of these important books while
presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal
of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the
rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by
Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9781400863563
Publisert
2014
Utgiver
Vendor
Princeton University Press
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter