The Institute’s primary publication is “Jefferson & Madison’s Guide to the Constitution.” This publication is intended to assist teachers, students, parents, and citizens in understanding and appreciating the Constitution of the United States of America. It is designed as a handbook for studying the Constitution in the tradition of the founders, using the source documents and writings identified by them as the “best guides” to its principles and meaning. These sources include the writings of Locke and Sidney, the Declaration of Independence, the Federalist Papers, and Washington’s Farewell Address.
The Institute encourages the reading and study of America's Founding Documents and their Sources in our public schools. See:
- Teaching America's Founding Documents (ERIC Digest)
- Teaching the Federalist Papers (ERIC Digest)
- Why 'The Federalist' belongs in the classroom
- California Education Code
- Classic dilemma
Recommended Source Books and Suggested Reading List:
The Federalist Papers
By Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay
(available in paperback from Signet, Mentor, Penguin, and Bantam books)
An American Primer
Edited by Daniel J. Boorstin
Contains the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, George Washington's Inaugural and Farewell Addresses, Thomas Jefferson's Inaugural Address, Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and other important U. S. historical documents. (available in paperback from Meridian (Penguin))
Discourses Concerning Government
By Algernon Sidney (Edited by Thomas G. West, Liberty Fund, Inc., 1996)
An Essay Concerning the True Original, Extent and End of Civil Government
By John Locke (in Social Contract, Oxford University Press, 1960)
Vindicating the Founders
By Thomas G. West
(Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 1997)
The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution
By Bernard Bailyn
(Harvard University Press, 1992)
Never Before in History: America's Inspired Birth
By Gary Amos and Richard Gardiner
(Pandas Publications, Haughton Publishing Company, 1998)
Miracle at Philadelphia
By Catherine Drinker Bowen
(Paperback, Little Brown & Company, Inc.)