The American Founding

by Frank W. Fox

The American Founding Brief Edition. An informative read on our constitution. Every political society has a foundation of some kind in the sense of institutions upon which it rests. Read with new excitement the course in which the United States established its foundations.

620 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2003

About the author

Prof. Frank W. Fox is a professor emeritus of history and American studies at Brigham Young University.

Prof. Fox taught at BYU from 1971 until his retirement in 2006. Durnig that time, Prof. Fox served as the Department chair for the Department of History from 2000-2003. Prof. Fox received the Karl G. Maeser Distinguished Teaching Award in 1984 and the Karl G. Maesar General Education Professorship in 1987. He is best known for developing the History Department's graduate curriculum and, with economics professor Clayne L. Pope, BYU's American Heritage program.

Reviews

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

Is it weird to rate a textbook with 5 stars? Perhaps, but I suppose there's a reason that the author has been teaching American Heritage at BYU for decades. A great review of the America's process of becoming a nation.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

I decided to revisit this American Heritage textbook to check my knowledge from when I took the class years ago. I was surprised and didn't especially recognize the book compared to the edition I had studied. Regardless, this book focuses on the what the founding of the United State and where the formulative ideas came from to help make our country's founding documents. It compiled information from a huge variety of sources to help support many of its claims. I think this book is an excellent resource to learn about America, its philosophy and its history. However, the book was very good until about 3/4ths of the way through I stalled in my reading when I used to read before sleep. Then I moved and didn't get back to my regiment and the reading was more infrequent. I decided to finish it off though and plowed through it in a couple more days. It was those last chapters that didn't have the same structure as the other sections that made sense in a progressively logical way. The latter chapters focused on tangential themes that seemed to come to the authors mind and seemed more like a box to check than anything.

Ultimately, I still love this book and plan to come back to it in a couple years.

[A · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned a lot from this text book, and yes, I did read the entire thing. However, there were some inaccuracies, such as the order in which states ratified the constitution, which was surprising given that I did not read the first edition. Hopefully this will be corrected in a subsequent edition. Other than that, this provided a great overview of the founding of The United States of America and I am very grateful to have read it.

[Jenelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's true...it's a textbook, but its completely conversational and exceptionally insightful. This book clarifies the whole jumble of history and politics and government. Fox quickly draws you into the ideas and humanity behind the founding and you find yourself just as passionate about it as he is. I felt that, prior to reading this, my cursory knowledge on the subject had made my political views ignorant and naive. Honestly, it's been one of the most influential books I've ever read.