| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 90.1

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 90.1 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Unintended Consequences of Constitutional Amendment. Ed. by David E. Kyvig. (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2000. 260 pp. Cloth, $45.00, ISBN 0-8203-2188-5. Paper, $20.00, ISBN 0-8203-2191-5.)

Given the recent clamor for constitutional amendment, the book's title—and the reminder it issues—is sufficient cause to hope it is widely distributed on Capitol Hill. That said, there is much to be gained from examining the fine essays that David E. Kyvig has collected. The title raises a difficult question: what counts as an unintended consequence? Wisely, Kyvig does not limit the authors to any particular conception of unintended consequences. Their free-ranging inquiry into the consequences of various constitutional amendments yields a bounty of useful insights.

The bounty is not without opportunity cost, however. The collected essays are related only by the common topic and do not take account of one another or proceed along any discernible outline. Thus, the book offers neither an exhaustive account nor a systematic theory of the unintended consequences of constitutional amendment. Readers are left to construct their theories and draw their own conclusions.

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