This collection surpasses anything else I have seen in its representation of the complexity, breadth, and sheer intellectual splendor of United States political thinking. I have trouble imagining how the editors could improve on their skillful blending of vital texts and neglected gems; of legal documents and literary treasures; of poems, speeches, sermons, and jeremiads. The European and American roots of U.S. constitutional thinking are displayed in a fashion that reflects the best recent scholarship while at the same time the spokesmen from Indian nations are given the broad and full presence they deserve. The torturous intersection of race and politics is explored in well-chosen texts by Black, Chicano, and Indian writers and through a host of legal documents and decisions. Conservative and progressive voices, labor activists and libertarians, analytical political philosophers, and Sunday editorialists; they all find their place within the editors' lucid arrangement. This will serve as a superb textbook for classes on United States political theory, for classes on constitutional history, and for overviews of the struggle for democracy in America. It is a great gathering of evidence for those who see the United States as having a political theory tradition of unique richness, range, and relevance. --Brian Walker, UCLA
