| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 109.1

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 109.1 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Canada and the United States

David J. Siemers. Ratifying the Republic: Antifederalists and Federalists in Constitutional Time. Stanford: Stanford University Press. 2002. Pp. xvii, 292. $55.00.

If the life of a constitution were measured in decades, not years, the American Constitution of 1787 would just have attained its majority. In retrospect, it seems remarkable that the infant survived its perilous first year of "constitutional time," the tumultuous decade of the 1790s. Early disagreements over domestic and foreign policy quickly escalated into disputes over the proper meaning of the constitutional text, demonstrating that for Americans constitutional interpretation was simply a continuation of politics by other means. For the Constitution, the "terrible twos" came precociously early, as the organization of political parties and the bitterly contested election of 1800 released surprisingly deep passions in the body politic.

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