Publisher's Synopsis
The United States of America is the birthplace of modern constitutionalism. The influence of American constitutions and their groundbreaking catalogues of basic and human rights, is felt in constitutional law around the world to this day. The first complete, critical edition of historical American constitutions, beginning with the constitution of New Hampshire of January 5, 1776 and ending a few weeks before the outbreak of the civil war in 1860, represents a milestone in historical scholarship and constitutional history in particular.
The seven-volume edition contains 446 constitutional texts, constitutional amendments, failed constitutions and draft constitutions from the United States, all in their original languages and alphabetically ordered. The supplement volume contains 20 documents of Hawai'i and Liberai. The texts, including some rare original versions, have been edited and annotated on the basis of the printed official state documents and conventions, consulting the original manuscripts.
Included in such a collection for the first time are failed constitutions and constitutional amendments usually created by conventions, but rejected by the people or subsequent legislatures, as well as founding documents of states never or only subsequently admitted to the Union, such as Deseret (1849), Franklin/Frankland (1784/85) or New Mexico (1850).
A number of documents were also published in languages other than English (Dutch, French, German and Spanish) in order to give ethnic minorities in the Union or the respective states the possibility of familiarizing themselves with the constitution. Among those included in this edition are the German version of the Articles of Confederation of 1777 (the first national constitution) and the Spanish version of the Constitution of California of 1849.
Besides authentically reproducing the constitutionally relevant texts, the edition documents the extensive amendment process. This enables the systematic study of constitutional changes and additions necessary for a deeper understanding of the constitutional development of the American states. These volumes represent the first edited publication of the great body of Federal and state constitutional amendments, never before made available in their entirety, filling a long-existing gap in the editorial history of American constitutions.
The edition Constitutional Documents of the United States of America 1776-1860 is published as part of the series Constitutions of the World from the late 18th Century to the Middle of the 19th Century. As a fundamental source collection for American constitutional history, it is recommended for national and regional libraries, university, parliament and public libraries, as well as faculties, institutes and non-university research facilities of American studies, history, legal history and political science.
In addition, this unique source edition supplements the microfiche edition Constitutions of the World 1850 to the Present, also published by K. G. Saur Verlag.
The editor,Horst Dippel, is Professor of British and North American Historyat theUniversity of Kassel, Germany.
