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For each myth, Raphael first notes the kernel of truth it represents, since most myths have some basis in fact. Then he presents a big “BUT”—the larger context that reveals what the myth distorts. What did the framers see as the true role of government? What did they think of taxes? At the Constitutional Convention, how did they mix principles with politics? Did James Madison really father the Constitution? Did the framers promote a Bill of Rights? Do the so-called Federalist Papers reveal the Constitution's inner meaning?
An authoritative and entertaining book, which “should appeal equally to armchair historians and professionals in the field” (Booklist), Constitutional Myths reveals what our founding document really says and how we should apply it today.
"Take off your rose-colored glasses, people: The Founding Fathers embraced a strong federal government, at the risk of falling into anarchy and disintegration. Therein lies the kernel of the author's readable demystification of some of the ongoing crusades by conservatives touting the supremacy of “originalism.”…With documents amply provided at the close of the text, Raphael provides a truly accessible teaching tool."
—Kirkus
"Wonderfully lucid and highly informative."
—Edward J. Larson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Magnificent Catastrophe
“[A]n adept corrective to some of the most strident imbalances in contemporary debates over the implications of the Founding.”
—Political Science Quarterly
“An extraordinarily important and nuanced work of history that places the Constitution, and the men who created it, in their proper eighteenth-century context.”
—Richard R. Beeman, author of Plain Honest Men: The Making of the American Constitution.
Ray Raphael has written more than twenty books, including A People’s History of the American Revolution, The First American Revolution: Before Lexington and Concord, Founders: The People Who Brought You a Nation, Constitutional Myths: What We Get Wrong and How to Get It Right, Founding Myths: Stories That Hide Our Patriotic Past, and The Spirit of 74: How the American Revolution Began (co-authored with Marie Raphael), all published by The New Press. He has taught at a one-room public high school, Humboldt State University, and College of the Redwoods and is currently a senior research fellow at Humboldt State University and associate editor of Journal of the American Revolution. He lives in Northern California, where he hikes and kayaks.