Novus Ordo Seclorum: The Intellectual Origins of the Constitution

About this book

This is the first major interpretation of the framing of the Constitution to appear in more than two decades. Forrest McDonald, widely considered one of the foremost historians of the Constitution and of the early national period, reconstructs the intellectual world of the Founding Fathers--including their understanding of law, history political philosophy, and political economy, and their firsthand experience in public affairs--and then analyzes their behavior in the Constitutional Convention of 1787 in light of that world. No one has attempted to do so on such a scale before. McDonald's principal conclusion is that, though the Framers brought a variety of ideological and philosophical positions to bear upon their task of building a "new order of the ages," they were guided primarily by their own experience, their wisdom, and their common sense.

Details

Format

Paperback

ISBN-13

9780700603114

Publisher

University Press of Kansas

Published

December 1, 1985

Pages

376

Weight

15.8 oz

Subject

Political Science