A number of links and web resources were discussed during the NEH Landmarks Institute at Montpelier. I’m going to post a few that I caught and ask that everyone add to the list by posting a comment to share your best kept secrets on the web.
Sue Leeson shared this resource created by Gordon Lloyd. This is a day-by-day summary of the Constitutional Convention…
http://www.teachingamericanhistory.org/convention/summary.html
The Avalon Project at Yale Law School provides an incredible resource for primary documents. Look for the entire collection Federalist Papers under 18th Century documents…
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/avalon.htm
ConSource provides an impressive collection too. Look for Madison’s Notes, state ratification debates, and what they present as “Anti-Federalist and Pro-Federalist Papers”…
http://www.consource.org/index.asp?bid=530
Will shared this link to his speaking notes for a presentation at Princeton’s Conference on “Constitutionalism” last February. His presentation is titled “Constitution of Failure: The Architectonics of a Well-Founded Constitutional Order“…
http://www.princeton.edu/~uchv/constitutionalism/Harris.pdf
For his concluding remarks the second week, Will shared an assignment he often presented to his students at Penn. Read Douglas R. Hofstadter’s 12th chapter of Metamagical Themas, titled “Variations on a Theme as the Crux of Creativity.” You can take a look at the table of contents and other excerpts using Google’s Book Search…
And, here’s the National Constitution Center’s Interactive Constitution. Based on Linda R. Monk’s The Words We Live By, you can explore by topic, search by keyword, or searcy by Supreme Court Decisions…
http://www.constitutioncenter.org/constitution/
It’s a start…click on “comments” and share your favorites too!
–Shellee
Here’s an interesting project at Constitution Live! They’re asking people to call and read part of the Constitution or to upload a video of them reading a piece of it. You can still be one of the first 100 and be featured on their homepage.
http://www.constitutionlive.com/
Wowsers! I just read Will’s “Constitution of Failure: The Architectonics of a Well-Founded Constitutional Order” and found it to be a great summary of so many of the ideas presented at Montpelier.
I’m not sure I understand each of the couplings illustrated in the diagram, though. If anyone grasps them enough to try to explain, I’d appreciate it.
Hey Hobbesie!
As I see it, Will’s article & diagram link the Federalist “Constitution of the United States” with the Antifederalist “Constitution of Oppression” and the Federalist “Constitution of the Disunited States” with the Antifederalist “Constitution of Liberty” to highlight the idea that the dream-come-true of the one is the worst nightmare of the other. And by separating the contrapositives, he emphasizes that the two positions are not merely polar opposites (the enemy of my enemy is my friend) but are two entirely different world views.
LP