The Words We Live By
Your Annotated Guide to the Constitution
By Linda R. Monk
(Hyperion, Paperback, 9780786886203, 288pp.)
Publication Date: February 2004
Other Editions of This Title: Hardcover
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The United States Constitution is the basis for our most fundamental rights as Americans, and is a key element in nearly every major legal and political debate ever argued. But how many of us actually understand the language used by our Founding Fathers? Now Linda R. Monk, an award-winning author and journalist, takes us through the Constitution, line by line, to help us comprehend this amazing document. From the Preamble, which she analyzes with inspiration from Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Charlton Heston, and James Madison, to each and every amendment, Monk offers insight, legal expertise, surprising facts and trivia, opposing interpretations, and historical anecdotes to breathe life into this provocative and hallowed document.
Linda R. Monk has twice won the American Bar Association's Silver Gavel Award, it's highest honor for public education about law. Her book, The Bill of Rights: A User's Guide, won the Silver Gavel, and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg has written the Foreword to the new third edition (2000). Ms. Monk also won the Silver Gavel in 1998 for her work on the documentary Profiles of Freedom: A Living Bill of Rights. A graduate of Harvard Law School with an emphasis in constitutional law, Ms. Monk has written numerous articles on legal and historical issues for newspapers nationwide--among them the Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, Baltimore Sun and Des Moines Register. She is also the editor of Ordinary Americans: U.S. History Through the Eyes of Everyday People, a collection of 200 first-person accounts of history as the average American actually lived it. She lives in Alexandria, Virginia.