Reviews for Biography of Ottmar Mergenthaler

The average rating for Biography of Ottmar Mergenthaler based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-01-27 00:00:00 Alain Villeneuve There’s two ways of looking at his book: a history of the U.S. through the lens of the Constitution, or the history of the Constitution through the lens of U.S. history. It’s a rather eclectic history, choosing certain pieces of American history – and granted many of the most important moments – and explaining the role and perception of the Constitution. From the title, the author describes the Constitution as the bulwark of the nation. Yet many issues he describes were caused by the Constitution (typically too much power held by the states). And one chapter is called The Failure of the Constitution. I expected the author to provide a sense of the future of the Constitution. But it didn't include that. From my reading of the book, I came away with a couple things. The Constitution is a great document, but it has serious flaws, not the least of which include state control of districting and voting, senate seats based on state (rather than population), campaigning fundraising (i.e., money does not equal free speech), etc. Despite 200+ years of states’ rights advocates bemoaning the tyranny of the federal government, history tells us that it has been the states that have been more repressive of people’s rights. In terms of frequency and scale, states have violated the rights of people (press, assembly, voting, religion, jury, guns, etc.) much more than the federal government. Overall, this is a rather average history of the U.S. – interesting but not compelling. I thought it would be a bit more of a polemic.

Review # 2 was written on 2012-05-04 00:00:00 R T Yet another amazing history from one of the greatest. This one is a "biography" of the US Constitution. Biography because attempts to detail the mutability of the document, how succeeding generations have molded and interpreted it.