The People's Guide to the United States Constitution, Revised Edition

by Dave Kluge

Overview

Although we are constantly bombarded with arguments over constitutional issues in the media, surveys show the majority of Americans have not read and understood our Constitution even though it is just 25 pages long. The reason? The language is over 200 years old with unusual words and legal terms. This book is an easy-to-read, spin-free guide to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, additional amendments, and the Declaration of Independence. It provides both the essential historical context and important definitions of the language used at the time. One can read straight through these original texts and gain confidence in understanding the agreements which guarantee our freedoms. This book will help answer these questions: Are our rights being protected or eroded? What is the true purpose of government and what are its duties? Why was the Bill of Rights written? Individuals should read this book to protect their rights and liberty and insist their elected officials read and understand the U.S. Constitution.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780983215202
Publisher:	American Handbook Publishing
Publication date:	04/23/2011
Pages:	260
Sales rank:	462,356
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.59(d)
Age Range:	16 Years

About the Author

The People's Guide to The United States Constitution was inspired by a 1992 Presidential debate. The three Presidential candidates seemed to contradict each other on Constitutional issues and the author was shocked to realize that, even with his background as the Legal Director of a U.S. based international software firm, he was not familiar enough with the Constitution to determine which candidates, if any, were telling the truth. Being the independent type, Dave Kluge did not want some politician's or scholar's interpretation of these issues, so he set out to read the original text and clarify for himself the framers' intent. Yet many hours later, up to his elbows in dictionaries, encyclopedias and other texts, it became clear that, while the well-educated framers made conscientious efforts to communicate exactly what they meant, some of the original meanings of the words they used over two centuries ago have been lost to modern dictionaries. The effort that it took to source key words of the articles of the Constitution and research their historical context in order to come to his own understanding, made Dave wonder how the average working man or woman could find time to do the same. Writing without political bias, Dave has penned The People's Guide to the United States Constitution with the simple goal of helping today's Americans to easily read the Constitution in its original form and thereby achieve a true understanding without the aid of interpretations.

Editorial Reviews

"The Constitution - perhaps America's most important document. But what does it actually all mean to the modern, every day America? The People's Guide to the United States Constitution is a thorough and comprehensive guide put in the common terms that everyone can understand, free of the spin artists that readers so often see on political news programs. Presenting the original text of the document and then giving a complete run down to what it really means, it's a must for anyone who wishes to truly understand the United States Constitution. " Jim Cox, Midwest Book Review

Foreward:

"The People's Guide to the United States Constitution by Dave Kluge presents readers with a brief background of the events that led to the writing of the nation's most important document, including John Locke's writings, Thomas Paine's Common Sense, the Revolution, and the Declaration of Independence. The author describes the foundations of democracy in ancient Greece and the public debate that took place in newspapers of the original colonies over the principles that should be included in the new Constitution.

'The American government ... is the oldest, continuously existing form in a major nation in the world today, ' Kluge writes. 'All other major nations have undergone significant changes in their forms of government since the American Revolution of 1776."

He uses Noah Webster's 1828 dictionary to define many key terms used by the framers of the Constitution, since these definitions most closely resemble their original intentions. The Constitution's most significant points are summarized and the document is reproduced in full with terms like "direct tax" and "pro tempore" defined in brackets.

[Kluge's book] brings something new to the table and will inspire readers to think about their place in this democracy.

From the Publisher