Novus Ordo Seclorum: the Intellectual Origins of the Constitution

Name: Novus Ordo Seclorum: the Intellectual Origins of the Constitution
Author: Forrest McDonald
ISBN: 9780700603114

Forrest McDonald

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Novus Ordo Seclorum: the Intellectual Origins of the Constitution

Forrest McDonald

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This is the first major interpretation of the framing of the Constitution to appear in more than two decades. Forrest McDonald 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.

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