The U.S. Constitution A to Z (Cq's Ready Reference Encyclopedia of American Government)

Constitution A to Z is a fine addition to the CQ's ready-reference encyclopedia of American government series. This comprehensive encyclopedia is an ideal resource for academic, public, and high school libraries or anyone who wants reliable information on the Constitution. Respected author Robert L. Maddex presents this guide to constitutional concepts and ideas in an A to Z format. In this one-stop reference work, readers will find: [yen] 250 entries in A to Z format [yen] 75 illustrations [yen] appendices that include the annotated Constitution [yen] a chronology of historic milestones [yen] a bibliography [yen] a table of cases [yen] an index Sample entries include: Abortion, Armed Forces, Ballots, Bill of Rights, Census, Congress, Death Penalty, Democracy, Education, Foreign Affairs, Hate Crimes, Human Rights, International Law Internet, Justice, Lobbying, Minorities, Naturalization, Political Parties, Property, Religion Searches and Seizures, Supreme Court, Term Limits, Union, War, And more.

Librarians familiar with previous volumes of CQ's Ready Reference Encyclopedia of American Government series will welcome The U.S. Constitution A to Z. The 250 alphabetically arranged entries, running from Abortion to Zoning, clearly describe the concepts, issues, events, and persons that have kept the "world's oldest written national constitution still in force" a dynamic work in progress.

The author, an attorney who specializes in international law, presents this volume as a useful overview of our constitutional history rather than an exhaustive work. But the inclusion of primary source documents (such as the First Charter of Virginia and both Virginia's and New Jersey's plans for the U.S. Constitution), a table of relevant court cases, a selected bibliography, and a list of Internet resources make it more than a simple introduction. Each entry's additional readings and the black-and-white illustrations throughout the book enhance its value for students wanting to learn more.

Whether to purchase this volume, however, might depend on other similar holdings and space available. Many excellent reference sources on the U.S. Constitution have appeared in recent years, including Encyclopedia of Constitutional Amendments, Proposed Amendments and Amending Issues, 1789-1995 (ABC-CLIO, 1996), and Constitutional Amendments, 1789 to the Present (Gale, 2000). In addition to these one-volume works, there are the four-volume Constitution and Its Amendments (Macmillan, 1999) and the six-volume Encyclope dia of the American Constitution (2d ed., Macmillan, 2000).

CQ's entry into the field is more current, including as it does coverage of the 2000 presidential election and alluding to some of the antiterrorism measures proposed after 9/11. It is recommended for academic, public, and high-school libraries that do not already own some of the above-mentioned works or could use an additional single-volume resource on the Constitution. RBB
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