The purpose of this book is to make accessible to the citizen and his son, to his newly enfranchised wife and daughter, and especially to his children in school, such a knowledge of the Constitution of the United States as will serves in emergency as a “first line of defense.”
It is not entirely clear from either the first or this– the second– paragraph of the Preface to our crappy old book of the month just exactly what sort of “emergency” the author had in mind. Nearly 100 years after the first publication of The Constitution of the United States: Its Sources and Applications (1922; 1940) I have a few examples of what might count, but I’m just a lowly Country Mouse. What do I know? (I haven’t finished reading the book yet.)
The simple plan here is to explain the Constitution by a note to every line or clause that has a historical story or drama back of it, or that has contributed during the hundred thirty-three years of our life under this instrument to the National of the international welfare of mankind.
DRAMA. In these quiet times, who wouldn’t like to read a good drama?
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Human drama.