Novus Ordo Seclorum: The Intellectual Origins of the Constitution

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.

Author: Forrest McDonald
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
Published: 12/01/1985
Pages: 376
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.99lbs
Size: 8.48h x 5.46w x 0.79d
ISBN13: 9780700603114
ISBN10: 0700603115
BISAC Categories:
- Political Science | History & Theory | General
- History | United States | Colonial Period (1600-1775)
- History | United States | Revolutionary Period (1775-1800)