Unruly Americans: Citizen Influence on the Constitution

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My interpretation of the purpose of Holton’s Unruly American’s in general is that he wanted to convey a more accurate understanding of the development of the United States constitution, as appose to other perspectives that focus mainly on the framers. The constitution wasn’t just developed by the framers alone; it was heavily influenced by the many average American citizens during this time. Influences such as public demonstrations of outrage due to taxation as well as the influence of debt generated by farmers that couldn’t financially maintain themselves due to the country’s poor infrastructure. Holton also informed his readers about the importance of the creation of the Bill of Rights. All of the following events helped shape the constitution …show more content…

To examine their lives and put into perspective why they carried out the actions they did. Putting these pieces together and understanding the development of our country on a macroscopic scale is the true significance and purpose portrayed by this book.

2. Relation to course:
The constitution is the bedrock in which our country is based off of today. When it comes to learning and understanding the origins of our country the constitution is a highly important piece. This book goes into great depth explaining how the constitution was forged which makes its relevance to the course very significant.

3. Summary:
The preface section was about an activity that Holton used in some of his classes. He would ask his class to tell him which parts of the constitution were their most favorable. He we would then proceed to write what each student said on the board into three unlabeled categories. When the class exhausted the list of rights and restrictions it was their job to determine what each of the categories were. After the categories were revealed it was shown that most items belonged to the Bill of Rights category, as appose to the other two categories which were The Articles of Confederation, and the basic Constitution preceding the Bill of …show more content…

is an award winning author and history professor. He graduated from the University of Virginia with a Bachelor’s degree in English and later finished his Ph.D. in History at Duke University. Professor Holton is the son of A. Linwood Holton Jr. who is the former Governor of Virginia. Professor Holton is currently a professor at the University of South Carolina and was previously an associate professor at the University of Richmond. He teaches Early American history and the American Revolution at graduate seminars. He also instructs undergraduate level classes on economic history as well as Early African Americans, Native Americans, and Early American

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