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Chapter 2: The American Constitution

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Flash Cards

Practice Quiz

Critical Thinking and Learning Exercises

http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/lin_quz.htm
  1. 1. Create a fictitious country (provide a name) and develop a constitution. Looking at the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of a second country, how does your constitution compare?
  2. 2. Review the unamended constitution; how many times do the framers make references to slavery, either directly or indirectly?
  3. 3. Test your knowledge of the constitution in a game of Jeopardy.

Links to further Resources

All About the Constitution

http://usconstitution.net/

A comprehensive website devoted to understanding the U.S. Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and the Articles of Confederation

Constitutional Law and the Supreme Court

http://constitution.findlaw.com/

This Congressional Research Service website provides scholarly analysis of constitutional law issues and court cases relating to those issues. 

The Articles of Confederation

http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/articles.html

This Library of Congress website provides a wealth of information about the Articles of Confederation, which served as the first constitution of the United States, from 1777-1789.

Timeline of the Revolutionary War

http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/revwartimeline.htm

This interactive site provides a timeline of the major events in our war for independence. A review of these historical events provides an important context for understanding both the Articles of Confederation and the debate over the Constitution.

Liberty! A PBS Chronicle of the American Revolution

http://www.pbs.org/ktca/liberty/

This companion site to the PBS documentary series provides useful contextual information for understanding the Constitutional Convention and the political culture of early America.

A Daily Diary of the Constitutional Convention

http://constitution.org/dfc/dfc_0000.htm

This website provides detailed minutes of the Constitutional Convention, as recorded by James Madison.

The National Archives

http://www.archives.gov/

The National Archives provides a comprehensive official repository of American archival records.

The Federalist Papers

http://thomas.loc.gov/home/histdox/fedpapers.html

The Library of Congress website offers access to all of the Federalist papers. The Federalist Papers were a series of editorial pieces written by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay advocating for the ratification of the Constitution.