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Hailed as "the Oxford English Dictionary of American constitutional history," the print edition of The Founders' Constitution has proved since its publication in 1987 to be an invaluable aid to all those seeking a deeper understanding of one of our nation's most important legal documents.

In this unique anthology, Philip B. Kurland and Ralph Lerner draw on the writings of a wide array of people engaged in the problem of making popular government safe, steady, and accountable. The documents included range from the early seventeenth century to the 1830s, from the reflections of philosophers to popular pamphlets, from public debates in ratifying conventions to the private correspondence of the leading political actors of the day.

These rich and varied materials are arranged, first, according to broad themes or problems to which the Constitution of 1787 has made a significant and lasting contribution. Then they are arranged by article, section, and clause of the U.S. Constitution, from the Preamble through Article Seven and continuing through the first twelve Amendments.

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CHOICE Review

The bicentennial celebration of the US Constitution is unlikely to produce a more searching or instructive reexamination of the documentary sources of the American founding than the one contained in the monumental five volumes edited by Kurland and Lerner (University of Chicago). Calling their work ``an anthology of reasons and of the political arguments that thoughtful men and women drew from, and used to support, those reasons,'' the editors thread their way through the fundamental arguments and leading themes made manifest in the contents of the Constitution and its first 12 amendments-the text that may fairly be designated the Founders' Constitution. Although comprehensive, the collection is, as the editors admit, ``a sample of intelligence focused on the problems of establishing and maintaining free popular government, drawn from the two centuries between the beginnings under the early Stuarts and the end of the Marshall era.'' Not only do the assembled documents draw one on to pursue the developing resolution of debates about the founding principles, but the editors, in their introductions and headnotes, act as trustworthy cicerones, combining cogency and concision with great learning and sensitivity in highlighting the issues and developments found in the documents. The first volume, on major constitutional themes, is followed by three additional ones devoted to the articles and sections of the original constitution. The final volume presents the ``reasons and arguments'' for the first 12 amendments. Each chapter or section lists additional documentary sources for further reading and each volume contains three indexes, one for constitutional provisions, another for cases cited, and a third of authors and documents. Unreservedly recommended as a core resource for any library, and wonderfully engrossing to readers searching for the meaning and purport of the Constitution.-L. Weinstein, Smith College

Booklist Review

A monumental scholarly undertaking, gathering in one place important documents from the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries that bear on the Constitution from the preamble through the Twelfth Amendment. The documents have been drawn from a wide range of sources and span early colonial thinking through the 1830s. They include letters, pamphlets, and judicial opinions. The first volume is organized by themes, such as equality, and the remaining volumes are divided by constitutional clause. Cross-references, table of cases, and indexes of constitutional provision, authors, and documents in each volume make the set accessible.