You Are In: USINFO > Topics > U.S. Life, Culture and History > Holidays > July 4th
 
 

Publications

About America: The Constitution of the United States of America With Explanatory Notes
This illustrated publication includes the complete text of the U.S. Constitution (preamble, seven articles, and 27 amendments), as well an updated introduction and explanatory notes by J.W. Peltason, author of "Understanding the Constitution" and "Government by the People". The introduction includes sections explaining how the Constitution set up the U.S. federal system, the background to the Constitutional Convention version of the document, its ratification, and sections on the call for a Bill of Rights and the need for additional amendments over the years. Dr. Peltason is currently professor of Political Science Emeritus, University of California, Irvine, as well as President Emeritus, University of California.

Democracy Papers
This series of 12 essays on democracy-building is the successor to the "Freedom Papers" series published by USIA in the early 1990s. It was edited by Melvin Urofsky, a professor of constitutional law at Virginia Commonwealth University and the editor of the USIA publication "Basic Readings in U.S. Democracy." Topics are: Introduction: Root Principles of Democracy; Constitutionalism: America and Beyond; Principles of Democratic Elections; Federalism and Democracy; Creation of Law in a Democratic Society; Role of an Independent Judiciary; Powers of the Presidency; Role of a Free Media; Protecting Minority Rights; Role of Interest Groups; Civilian Control of the Military; The Public's Right to Know: Transparency in Government.

Outline of U.S. History
A chronological look at how the United States took shape -- from its origins as an obscure set of colonies on the Atlantic coast a little more than 200 years ago into what one political analyst today calls "the first universal nation." This fully illustrated edition has been completely revised and updated (2005) by Alonzo L. Hamby, Distinguished Professor of History at Ohio University. Chapter 3, The Road to Independence, is of special interest.

Rights of the People: Individual Freedom and the Bill of Rights
A history of American law and justice, written by Constitutional historian Melvin Urofsky. By focusing on the Bill of Rights to the U.S. Constitution, and the legal interpretations, many of them written by America's finest jurists, that refined and expanded the Bill of Rights, Urofsky presents a history of the United States from the standpoint of individual liberty.

What Is Democracy
Highlights such aspects of democratic society as rights of the individual, the rule of law, elections, the democratic culture and government, and politics, economics, and pluralism. Emphasizes how the citizens of a democracy must take responsibility for the fate of the society in which they live.