Amendment Fetish: The Repeal Amendment
While proclaiming undying fealty to the Constitution, the Tea Party movement and its allies are touting a hot new amendment to that otherwise perfect document, which goes by the oxymoronic name “the Repeal Amendment.” This proposed amendment would allow two-thirds of the state legislatures to repeal any law or regulation of the federal government, so long…
Read MoreAmendment Fetish: The Seventeenth Amendment
Adopted in 1913, the Seventeenth Amendment changed the way American choose their senators. Until then, each state legislature selected that state’s two senators for six-year terms. After 1913, the voters have chosen senators in elections. Repeal of the Seventeenth Amendment is a centerpiece of the state’s rights push behind the Tea Party movement and its close…
Read MoreThe Amendment Fetish: The Problem of the States
The swelling Tea Party movement embodies a fascinating contradiction. Its leaders profess a near-religious awe for the U.S. Constitution. This has led to stunts like the reading of the Constitution on the floor of the House of Representatives. Should it also lead to greater sales for The Summer of 1787, I will be hard-pressed to complain. …
Read MoreOpportunity Knocks, Founders Style
The recession may be over! Openings available in Philadelphia for Founding Father impersonators! (Thanks to fellow blogger at Northwest History, for highlighting this howler): Founding Father Performers, Historic Philadelphia, PA December 10th, 2010 Historic Philadelphia, Inc. seeks historical interpreters to portray Founding Fathers. Thomas Jefferson: mid-late 20s/early 30s; at least 5’10”; Virginia accent; red hair…
Read MoreRejecting The "Gretna Defense"
I usually root for the defense, especially in an impeachment case, since I lost one of those 21 years ago. (I represented Judge Walter L. Nixon, Jr. of Mississippi.) But there’s no criticizing the Senate’s conviction yesterday of District Judge G. Thomas Porteous of New Orleans. The case, as detailed in a Senate committee report, presented a…
Read MoreAaron Burr Leaves the Senate
The Washington Post ran a piece on Saturday about how current senators ignore the deeply-felt farewell addresses of their departing colleagues. Having just completed my manuscript about Aaron Burr’s Western expedition, which will be published next fall — American Emperor: Aaron Burr’s Challenge to Jefferson’s America — I was reminded of Burr’s emotional departure from the Senate in…
Read MoreConan Doyle and the Tax Man
I’m thoroughly enjoying a biography of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, by Dan Stashower: Teller of Tales. Stashower reveals the source of Holmes’ uncanny ability to deduce a person’s biography in the first meeting him or her, solely by close observation of appearance: Conan Doyle had a professor in medical school at the University of Edinburgh who had that…
Read MoreWashington Independent Review of Books
On Saturday morning, December 4, you can join an effort to help preserve and extend the culture of books and reading. We will hold an organizational meeting at 9:30 a.m. for the Washington Independent Review of Books, an online publication scheduled to launch in late January. We will meet at the office of American Independent…
Read MoreProfessor Wood Challenges His Colleagues
In his rave review of the new biography of George Washington by Ron Chernow, Gordon Wood, now an emeritus professor at Brown University, gives (polite) vent to his frustration with his fellow academic historians. The history professoriate, he explains in the upcoming issue of the New York Review of Books, increasingly writes for itself, and…
Read More"The Summer of 1787" and the Middle Kingdom
The capitalist tilt in China continues! ANA Beijing has agreed to publish The Summer of 1787 in a Chinese language edition. Though I am optimistic that this development presages a new dawn of freedom and democracy in the Far East, candor compels me to disclose that the initial print run will only be 3,000 volumes. …
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