Why and how did Americans conceive a republic built on individual liberty, in an era of oppressive monarchies? Two Revolutions and the Constitution describes how the British revolutions and constitution shaped the political values which were the foundation of the American Constitution.
The author explains how British colonial government, the innovations in the first American constitutions (the State constitutions), and the failure of the States’ first attempt to unite, all influenced the Framers in drafting the final Constitution.
The book tells how developments in England since Magna Carta had enabled liberty and representative government to develop in England and in colonial America. The charges against George III in the Declaration of Independence mirrored the charges against Charles I at the founding of the English republic. The English replaced two kings in their revolutions of the 1600s. Those revolutions led to enduring constitutional changes in Britain and in colonial America.
Philips also considers how the founding charters of the American colonies contained the seeds of American rebellion in the 1760s and 1770s.
James D. R. Philips is visiting lecturer at the University of Sydneys Law School.
Introduction
Chapter 1 Before the Revolution: The System of Government in America
Chapter 2 The End of Tyranny? The English Revolution
Chapter 3 The Original Legislature: The Origins of Parliament
Chapter 4 The British Executive: The Prime Minister Supersedes the King
Chapter 5 British Coercion, American Resistance
Chapter 6 The First American Constitutions: The State Constitutions
Chapter 7 The Confederation Was Not Enough
Chapter 8 The Revolution Is Secured: The Constitution Is Born
Epilogue
Appendix 1 The Legal Status of the Colonies
Appendix 2 1790 Census Data
Appendix 3 The Origins of the Common Law
Acknowledgments
Bibliography
Further Reading
About the Author
Two Revolutions and the Constitution strikes a much-deserved blow at ‘American Exceptionalism,’ a misguided and self-congratulatory myth that persists in our profession. Philips offers a clear and persuasive account of the English roots of America’s constitution and the government that it created. Bravo! — Carol Berkin, professor of history and author of A Brilliant Solution: Inventing the American Constitution
An important book which explains hitherto unrecognized connections between early English Republicans and their common law concepts and the foundations of the United States Constitution. It analyzes the struggles against royalism in both countries, and why America seceded and succeeded with help from British legal history.
— Geoffrey Robertson, international human rights lawyer, and author of The Tyrannicide Brief: The Story of the Man Who Sent Charles I to the Scaffold
A fascinating book for an age which has seen the Capitol stormed and the U.K. at the brink of destruction: there has never been a better time to remind ourselves of how exactly these first, deeply-related, Anglo-American revolutions unfolded.
— James Hawes, author of The Shortest History of England