The Bill of Rights: The First Ten Amendments of the Constitution

Traces the history of the writing of the first ten amendments to the Constitution, and examines each amendment's provisions and applications in detail.

Reviewed with David L. Hudson's The Fourteenth Amendment.

Gr. 5-8. From the Constitution series, these books provide clearly written explanations of the history and content of the Bill of Rights and one of its most significant amendments. In Bill of Rights, Hudson offers a lucid introduction to the document's "ancestry," its creation, and how its protections have affected many social issues and legal cases in American history. Though some sections of The Fourteenth Amendment deal with issues and conditions that arose in the wake of the Civil War, other sections are pertinent today. The "equal protection" and "due process" phrases have been the basis for many significant legal decisions, including those dealing with abortion, discrimination, and physician-assisted suicide. Hudson cogently discusses several of these and other cases. Each book includes the text of the Constitution and a list of the amendments with brief comments identifying the subjects they address. Source notes and lists of recommended books and Web sites are also appended. Two more volumes appear in the Series Roundup. Carolyn Phelan
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