Constitutional History of the American Revolution: The Authority of Law (Constitutional History of the American Revolution)

Rating:
Summary: The heart of the "constitutional debate."
Review: The condensing of Reid's work from the four volume set allows a student to see the major point of the constitutional debate between the colonists and thier British rulers in the late colonial period; the conception of a constitution of Parliamentary Command/Sovereign Authority (Britain) versus a constitution of Customary Rights (American Whigs). It also deftly explains the concept of "constitutional avoidance" as a basis and strategy of resistance. Some of the depth in Reid's development of the five "authority" bases may be lost in the abridged edition, but that hardly detracts from the value of this edition for the student of the American Revolution.