TY - JOUR
AU - McDowell, Gary L.
AB - 528 The Journal of American History September 2009 by “evangelical Republicans and liberal Feder- we have accepted thereby what Thomas rightly alists” (p. 186). bewails as a mere “legalist constitution” (p. ix). As a result, we have largely lost sight of the el- Darren Staloff egant and elevated science of politics that was City College of New York the original essence of the Madisonian Consti- New York, New York tution—that is, a “constitutionalism . . . struc- tured around a set of antagonistic institutions The Madisonian Constitution. By George and principles” (p. 4). Thomas. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univer- Thomas undertakes to resurrect that original sity Press, 2008. xiv, 248 pp. $50.00, isbn Madisonian essence—the idea that separation 978-0-8018-8852-6.) of powers is not the same thing as mere judi- cial supremacy—by turning to James Madison “Constitutions,” Justice Joseph Story argued, himself. He then leads the reader through four “are not designed for metaphysical or logical periods in which politics undertook to recon- subtleties, for niceties of expression, for criti- stitute the original Madisonian Constitution to cal propriety, for elaborate shades of meaning, suit the policy demands of the moment—the or for the exercise of philosophical acuteness time of the early 
TI - The Madisonian Constitution. By George Thomas. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008. xiv, 248 pp. $50.00, ISBN 978-0-8018-8852-6.)
JF - The Journal of American History
DO - 10.1093/jahist/96.2.528
DA - 2009-09-01
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/oxford-university-press/the-madisonian-constitution-by-george-thomas-baltimore-johns-hopkins-k20xwO6KWI
SP - 528
EP - 528
VL - 96
IS - 2
DP - DeepDyve
ER -