The Founders' Constitution

A five-volume documentary edition, published by the University of Chicago Press, that assembles the sources behind the United States Constitution clause by clause. Volume 1 is arranged by theme — union, republican government, rights, separation of powers — and volumes 2 through 5 march through the document itself, printing under each clause the debates, letters, statutes, pamphlets, court opinions and philosophical sources that bear on it. It is a reference work rather than an argument: the point is to let a reader see what the framers and their critics actually said about a given provision. The full text is freely readable online at press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders.

Why it’s on the list: McCord lists it in The American Experiment section immediately after “The People Shall Judge”, another University of Chicago documentary collection — the pair being the section’s primary-source apparatus, where a reader goes past commentary to the founding argument in its own words.

Where I saw it: Brendan McCord’s Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List, in the Political Philosophy and the History of Ideas part, section The American Experiment — a structured curriculum shared on X on March 9, 2026 and saved to Kyle’s Apple Note “Books To Read”. The full 211-entry transcription is on The Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List.

Connections

• Founding Fathers — the authors of the documents collected here.
• Novus Ordo Seclorum — Forrest McDonald’s interpretive companion, three entries later in the same section of McCord’s list.
• The Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List — the curriculum this came from.