Politicians come and go, but the Constitution stands as the supreme law of the land. Setting forth the workings of our democracy, it is the bedrock document from which we derive our policies on topics as diverse and galvanizing as immigration, gun ownership, voting rights, taxation, policing, civil liberties, and war.

In this indispensable edition, acclaimed historian and Constitutional expert Ray Raphael guides us through the origins, impact, and current relevance of the original text and all twenty-seven amendments. Here is the key historical context for issues in the news today--from the Electoral College to Washington gridlock, from peaceful protests to executive power. Thoughtful and nuanced, lively and highly readable, this annotated Constitution is for all of us to read and refer to--the ultimate political fact-checking source for every American.

The tenth-anniversary edition of the book that showed why we must move past historical nonsense so that a truer, more democratic national record can emerge (School Library Journal)

Originally published to universal acclaim, award-winning historian Ray Raphael's Founding Myths has since established itself as a landmark of historical myth-busting. With Raphael's trademark wit and flair, Founding Myths exposed the errors and inventions in America's most cherished tales, from Paul Revere's famous ride to Patrick Henry's Liberty or Death speech. For the thousands who have been captivated by Raphael's eye-opening accounts, history has never been the same.

In this revised tenth-anniversary edition, Raphael revisits the original myths and further explores their evolution over time, uncovering new stories and peeling back new layers of misinformation. This new edition also examines the highly politicized debates over America's past, as well as how our approach to history in school reinforces rather than corrects historical mistakes.

A book that explores the truth behind the stories of the making of our nation (National Public Radio), this revised edition of Founding Myths will be a welcome resource for anyone seeking to separate historical fact from fiction.

How ordinary people went from resistance to revolution: A] concise, lively narrative . . . the authors expertly build tension. --Publishers Weekly

Americans know about the Boston Tea Party and the shot heard 'round the world, but sixteen months divided these two iconic events, a period that has nearly been lost to history. The Spirit of '74 fills in this gap in our nation's founding narrative, showing how in these mislaid months, step by step, real people made a revolution.

After the Tea Party, Parliament not only shut down a port but also revoked the sacred Massachusetts charter. Completely disenfranchised, citizens rose up as a body and cast off British rule everywhere except in Boston, where British forces were stationed. A Spirit of '74 initiated the American Revolution, much as the better-known Spirit of '76 sparked independence. Redcoats marched on Lexington and Concord to take back a lost province, but they encountered Massachusetts militiamen who had trained for months to protect the revolution they had already made.

The Spirit of '74 places our founding moment in a rich new historical context, both changing and deepening its meaning for all Americans.

Americans on both sides of the aisle love to reference the Constitution as the ultimate source of truth. But which truth? What did the framers really have in mind? In a book that author R.B. Bernstein calls essential reading, acclaimed historian Ray Raphael places the Constitution in its historical context, dispensing little-known facts and debunking popular preconceived notions.

For each myth, Raphael first notes the kernel of truth it represents, since most myths have some basis in fact. Then he presents a big BUT--the larger context that reveals what the myth distorts. What did the framers see as the true role of government? What did they think of taxes? At the Constitutional Convention, how did they mix principles with politics? Did James Madison really father the Constitution? Did the framers promote a Bill of Rights? Do the so-called Federalist Papers reveal the Constitution's inner meaning?

An authoritative and entertaining book, which should appeal equally to armchair historians and professionals in the field (Booklist), Constitutional Myths reveals what our founding document really says and how we should apply it today.

The best single-volume history of the Revolution I have read. --Howard Zinn

Upon its initial publication, Ray Raphael's magisterial A People's History of the American Revolution was hailed by NPR's Fresh Air as relentlessly aggressive and unsentimental. With impeccable skill, Raphael presented a wide array of fascinating scholarship within a single volume, employing a bottom-up approach that has served as a revelation.

A People's History of the American Revolution draws upon diaries, personal letters, and other Revolutionary-era treasures, weaving a thrilling you are there narrative--a tapestry that uses individual experiences to illustrate the larger stories. Raphael shifts the focus away from George Washington and Thomas Jefferson to the slaves they owned, the Indians they displaced, and the men and boys who did the fighting (Los Angeles Times Book Review).

This remarkable perspective on a familiar part of American history helps us appreciate more fully the incredible diversity of the American Revolution (Kirkus Reviews).

Through letters, diaries, and other accounts, Raphael shows these individuals--white women and men of the farming and laboring classes, free and enslaved African Americans, Native Americans, loyalists, and religious pacifists--acting for or against the Revolution and enduring a war that compounded the difficulties of everyday life. --Library Journal

A tour de force . . . Ray Raphael has probably altered the way in which future historians will see events. --The Sunday Times

More Tree Talk is an insightful and compelling look at the human dimension of the challenges facing forestry. First published in 1981, Tree Talk was widely hailed as the most even-handed and well-written introduction to forestry issues available. More Tree Talk is an entirely revised edition of that classic volume that brings the book up-to-date with the current situation.

Like the original, More Tree Talk features a running narrative punctuated by individual portraits that personalize the issues. It translates political and academic aspects of forestry into human terms, focusing on those whose lives and livelihoods depend on the outcome of the debates currently raging -- old-time woodsmen, loggers, naturalists, restoration workers, timber company executives.

Ray Raphael explores the new forestry practices, theories, and controversies that have emerged in the past decade as he addresses problems of a declining resource base and increasing regulatory policies. He examines the impact of ecological and economic concerns on rural communities, and considers the possibility of large structural changes in the ways in which timber companies operate. Throughout, he emphasizes that without an understanding of the economic and political factors that interfere with good forest management, all the scientific knowledge -- and all the best intentions of on-site workers -- will come to no avail.

According to the traditional telling, the American Revolution began with the shot heard round the world. Now in paperback, Ray Raphael's The First American Revolution uses the wide-angle lens of a people's historian to tell a surprising new story of America's revolutionary struggle. In the years before the battle of Lexington and Concord, local people--men and women of common means but of uncommon courage--overturned British authority and declared themselves free from colonial oppression, with acts of rebellion that long predated the Boston Tea Party. In rural towns such as Worcester, Massachusetts, democracy set down roots well before the Boston patriots made their moves in the fight for independence. Richly documented, The First American Revolution recaptures in vivid detail the grassroots activism that drove events in the years leading up to the break from Britain.

Americans of late have taken to waving the Constitution in the air and proclaiming, The founders were on MY side! See, it's all right here! But these phantom constitutions bear little relation to the historical one.

By entering the world of the Constitution's framers, and experiencing it one day after the next as they did, Ray Raphael helps us understand how and why they created the document they did. Casting aside preconceptions and commonly held beliefs, he asks provocative questions that get to the heart of the document and its purposes: Was the aim of the Constitution really to limit government? Why didn't the framers include a Bill of Rights? Did they hate taxes? Was James Madison actually the Father of the Constitution, as proclaimed in our textbooks? Can we find the true meaning of the Constitution by reading The Federalist Papers or by revealing the framers' original intent? The answers to these questions are bound to surprise and enlighten.

Before we can consider what the framers would do if they were alive today, we first need to see what they did during their own time, not in our terms, but theirs. Only then can we begin to resolve the sweeping question that affects us all: what does the Constitution, written at a different time, mean for us today? With this meticulously researched historical tour de force, Raphael sets the record straight--and sounds a vital call for a reasoned and evidence-driven debate about our founding document.

Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Hamilton, Adams, and Madison--together they are best known as an intimate cadre of daring, brilliant men credited with our nation's founding. But does this group tell the whole story? In his widely praised new history of the roots of American patriotism, celebrated author Ray Raphael expands the historical canvas to reveal an entire generation of patriots who pushed for independence, fought a war, and set the United States on its course--giving us an evangelizing introduction to the American Revolution (Booklist).

Called entertaining yet informative by Library Journal, Founders brings to life seven historical figures whose stories anchor a sweeping yet intimate history of the Founding Era, from the beginnings of unrest in 1761 through the passage of the Bill of Rights thirty years later. Here we follow the intertwined lives of George Washington and a private soldier in his army. America's richest merchant, who rescued the nation from bankruptcy, goes head to head with a peripatetic revolutionary who incited rebellion in seven states. Rounding out the company is a richly nuanced cast that includes a common village blacksmith, a conservative enslaver with an abolitionist son, and Mercy Otis Warren, the most politically engaged woman of the time.

A master narrative with unprecedented historical scope, Founders will forever change our image of this most crucial moment in America's past.

Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Hamilton, Adams, and Madison--together they are best known as an intimate cadre of daring, brilliant men credited with our nation's founding. But does this group tell the whole story? In his widely praised new history of the roots of American patriotism, celebrated author Ray Raphael expands the historical canvas to reveal an entire generation of patriots who pushed for independence, fought a war, and set the United States on its course--giving us an evangelizing introduction to the American Revolution (Booklist).

Called entertaining yet informative by Library Journal, Founders brings to life seven historical figures whose stories anchor a sweeping yet intimate history of the Founding Era, from the beginnings of unrest in 1761 through the passage of the Bill of Rights thirty years later. Here we follow the intertwined lives of George Washington and a private soldier in his army. America's richest merchant, who rescued the nation from bankruptcy, goes head to head with a peripatetic revolutionary who incited rebellion in seven states. Rounding out the company is a richly nuanced cast that includes a common village blacksmith, a conservative enslaver with an abolitionist son, and Mercy Otis Warren, the most politically engaged woman of the time.

A master narrative with unprecedented historical scope, Founders will forever change our image of this most crucial moment in America's past.

The dramatic and penetrating story of the political maneuverings and personalities behind the creation of the office of the president, with ramifications that continue to this day.

For the first time, by focusing closely on the dynamic give-and-take at the Constitutional Convention, Ray Raphael reveals how politics and personalities cobbled together a lasting, but flawed, executive office. Remarkably, the hero of this saga is Gouverneur Morris, a flamboyant, peg-legged delegate who pushed through his agenda with amazing political savvy, and not a little deceit. Without Morris's perseverance, a much weaker American president would be appointed by Congress, serve for seven years, could not be reelected, and have his powers tightly constrained.

Charting the presidency as it evolved during the administrations of Washington, Adams, and Jefferson, Raphael shows how, given the Constitution's broad outlines, the president's powers could easily be augmented but rarely diminished. Today we see the result--an office that has become more sweeping, more powerful, and more inherently partisan than the framers ever intended. And the issues of 1787--whether the Electoral College, the president's war powers, or the extent of executive authority--continue to stir our political debates.