Linda Colley

The stated thesis of this book is that written constitutions became necessary to convince the populace to continue to support the increasing expense of maintaining navies and standing armies. The authored certainly read a lot of political tracts and constitutions, and offered accounts of constitutional practices from Corsica, Pitcairn Island, Hawaii, Japan, India and many others. Catherine the Great of Russia was experimenting with constitution making in her enlightened Nakaz decades before the Founding Fathers framed the American constitution.
I am not sure that the abundance of evidence she amassed actually made the case that the primary reason for the interest in constitutions was to support warfare, but the many fascinating and obscure facts Colley writes about make the book worthwhile.… (more)