It's something I now realize I should have done years ago. Oh, of course we read it High School, but at the time it was just another assignment to get through, and the classroom discussion was minimal.
I bought the Heritage Guide to the Constitution almost two years ago, I started to read it once and got sidetracked, but about two months ago I was desperate for something to read and I picked it up again.
This is an excellent reference book. It takes each Article,Section and Clause and cites debates of the Founders on the issue and interpretations and rulings from the three branches of gov't (where applicable).
I decided to read no more that one clause a day, I'm up to "Presentment of Resolutions"(Article 1, Section 7, Clause 3). This has given me time to actually try to digest the thoughts and arguments and internalize them.
The men were giants. There were the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists who came up with a document that the states could agree on, balancing the power of the National Gov't with the power of the the individual States and restricting the power of each branch of the gov't so that no one branch could control the process.
I'm still dealing with Congress and have the President, Judiciary, Military, Treasury to go, not to metions getting to the Amendments.
I also have a copy of "The Federalist" that I bought at the same time, and only got through about 1/2 of the "Editors Introduction" (it's 84 pages). I'm now really looking forward to getting back to it so I can compare my approvals and misgivings about this document.
Now I could use recommendations of books similar to "The Federalist" that covers "The Bill of Rights".
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