| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 112.4

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 112.4 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Canada and the United States

Stephen L. Elkin. Reconstructing the Commercial Republic: Constitutional Design after Madison. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 2006. Pp. xiii, 413. $35.00.

Stephen L. Elkin notes in this book, regretfully, that "contemporary political science has more or less repudiated its Aristotelian origins and it has little more than a passing interest in the teachings of Montesquieu and Tocqueville." Thus, among other things, it has not "taught the value of moving toward a self-limiting sovereignty capable of deliberative ways of law making" (p. 300). To correct this repudiation and bring back an understanding of the political realm worthy of Aristotle, Elkin has written a brilliant account of the nature of the American constitutional regime and its Madisonian origins, and as well provided extensive commentary on reforms needed to sustain such government in our own day. No other recent book, to my knowledge, so wisely assesses the American founding and so carefully and so specifically projects that understanding to contemporary political circumstances.

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