| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 112.1

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 112.1 | The History Cooperative

John J. Dinan. The American State Constitutional Tradition. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas. 2006. Pp. 430. $35.00.
Much twentieth-century scholarship views the American constitutional experience as embodied in the federal Constitution. That experience is defined by one constitutional convention that met in Philadelphia in 1787 and places enormous attention on the drafting and ratification of its constitution. This singular focus on the federal Constitution assumes that little of constitutional importance happened at the 100 other state constitutional proceedings in America before the Civil War and at the more than 100 additional conventions that met thereafter. If scholars notice state proceedings at all, these proceedings appear as mere variations on the constitutional themes of the federal convention.	1
More than twenty years ago, a handful of scholars (including the late Kermit Hall) urged an end to ignoring state constitutional convention proceedings. Some took up the call, including Laura Scalia and especially G. Alan Tarr. To a stunning degree, John J. Dinan builds on these works and far surpasses the use of state constitutional convention debates by anyone preceding him. Dinan assumed the Herculean task of examining all of the extant state constitutional debates of 114 conventions that met between 1818 and 1984. His findings provide ample grounds for further research.	. . .

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