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We the People

The Intellectual Inspirations Behind the Constitution

We the People

National Constitution Center

News, News Commentary, History

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 8 September 2022

⏱️ 76 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We have just launched an exciting project on the NCC’s website: The Founders’ Library. In it, you can read primary texts that span American constitutional history—from the philosophical works that influenced the Founding generation, to the most important speeches, essays, books, pamphlets, petitions, letters, court cases, landmark statutes, and state constitutions that have shaped the American constitutional tradition. To ensure nonpartisan rigor and ideological diversity, we assembled a group of leading scholars from diverse perspectives to help choose the sources included in the document library. Two of those scholars—Paul Rahe of Hillsdale College and Jonathan Gienapp from Stanford University—join host Jeffrey Rosen today to discuss some of the early texts from the Founders’ Library. Read Professor Rahe’s picks from the Intellectual Foundations of the American Founding (Before 1750): Thucydides — Thucydides, The War between the Athenians and the Peloponnesians (ca. 431-400 BC) Bacon & Hobbes (together) — Francis Bacon, “Selected Excerpts” (1620) and Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, or the Matter, Forme and Power of a Common Wealth Ecclesiastical and Civil (1651) James Harrington — James Harrington, The Commonwealth of Oceana (1656) Locke – religious toleration, right to revolution — John Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689) and Two Treatises on Government (1690) Hume & Adam Smith — David Hume, Essays Moral, Political and Literary (1741-58) and Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776) Montesquieu — Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws (1748)  Read Professor Gienapp’s picks from the Founding Era (1750-1790): John Dickinson, Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania, to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies (1768) William Cushing, Instructions to the Jury in the Quock Walker Case, Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Nathaniel Jennison (1783) James Iredell, To the Public (1786) George Mason, Objections to the Constitution of Government formed by the Convention (1787)   Questions or comments about the show? Email us at podcast@constitutioncenter.org. Continue today’s conversation on Facebook and Twitter using @ConstitutionCtr. Sign up to receive Constitution Weekly, our email roundup of constitutional news and debate, at bit.ly/constitutionweekly.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hello, I'm Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center,

0:09.4

and welcome to We The People, a weekly show of constitutional debate.

0:13.3

The National Constitution Center is a nonpartisan nonprofit charted by Congress to increase awareness

0:18.9

and understanding of the Constitution among the American people. Dear we the People, friends, I'm thrilled that the National Constitution Center has just launched

0:27.0

our Constitution 101 course and Founders Library of Historic Documents.

0:33.4

This is our core curriculum on the web,

0:36.0

an introduction to everything you need to know about the Constitution,

0:38.5

from the founding era to the Civil Rights Movement.

0:41.0

It includes videos and materials for teachers and includes

0:44.4

this magnificent Founders Library of primary texts. They're selected by

0:49.1

America's leading historians and law professors from diverse perspectives.

0:54.7

They begin with the intellectual sources of the founding

0:57.0

and move through the civil rights era.

0:59.6

It's just this magnificent library of learning and light.

1:05.2

And I'm so excited to share it with you today

1:09.0

with two of the professors who helped us select the text.

1:12.6

I want you in the discussion that follows to read along with us.

1:16.3

So go to the National Constitution Center home page.

1:19.5

You'll find historic documents right there on the home page and click on that and read

1:26.1

along with us as we delve into this magnificent resource for learning. We're honored to be joined by two of the professors who helped

1:35.8

us select the text and I'm so thrilled to introduce them to you now. Paul Ray is professor of history and Charles O. Lee and Louise Kaley chair in the Western

1:47.7

Heritage at Hillsdale College.

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