Overview
An innovative account of Abraham Lincoln, constitutional thinker and doer
Abraham Lincoln is justly revered for his brilliance, compassion, humor, and rededication of the United States to achieving liberty and justice for all. He led the nation into a bloody civil war to uphold the system of government established by the US Constitutionāa system he regarded as the ālast best hope of mankind.ā But how did Lincoln understand the Constitution?
In this groundbreaking study, Noah Feldman argues that Lincoln deliberately and recurrently violated the United Statesā founding arrangements. When he came to power, it was widely believed that the federal government could not use armed force to prevent a state from seceding. It was also assumed that basic civil liberties could be suspended in a rebellion by Congress but not by the president, and that the federal government had no authority over slavery in states where it existed. As president, Lincoln broke decisively with all these precedents, and effectively rewrote the Constitutionās place in the American system. Before the Civil War, the Constitution was best understood as a compromise pactāa rough and ready deal between states that allowed the Union to form and function. After Lincoln, the Constitution came to be seen as a sacred textāa transcendent statement of the nationās highest ideals.
The Broken Constitution is the first book to tell the story of how Lincoln broke the Constitution in order to remake it. To do so, it offers a riveting narrative of his constitutional choices and how he made themāand places Lincoln in the rich context of thinking of the time, from African American abolitionists to Lincolnās Republican rivals and Secessionist ideologues.
Includes 8 Pages of Black-and-White Illustrations
This book title, The Broken Constitution (Lincoln, Slavery, and the Refounding of America), ISBN: 9780374116644, by Noah Feldman, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (November 2, 2021) is available in hardcover. Our minimum order quantity is 25 copies. All standard bulk book orders ship FREE in the continental USA and delivered in 4-10 business days.
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