Summary of Noah Feldman's The Broken Constitution

By IRB Media

Get the Summary of Noah Feldman's The Broken Constitution in 20 minutes. Please note: This is a summary & not the original book. Original book introduction: In this groundbreaking study, Noah Feldman argues that Lincoln deliberately and recurrently violated the United States’ founding arrangements. When he came to power, it was widely believed that the federal government could not use armed force to prevent a state from seceding. It was also assumed that basic civil liberties could be suspended in a rebellion by Congress but not by the president, and that the federal government had no authority over slavery in states where it existed. As president, Lincoln broke decisively with all these precedents, and effectively rewrote the Constitution’s place in the American system. Before the Civil War, the Constitution was best understood as a compromise pact—a rough and ready deal between states that allowed the Union to form and function. After Lincoln, the Constitution came to be seen as a sacred text—a transcendent statement of the nation’s highest ideals

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Nov 22, 2021
• ISBN: 9781638157427

IRB Media

With IRB books, you can get the key takeaways and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.

Book preview

Insights on N. Feldman's The Broken Constitution

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

Abraham Lincoln’s family moved to southern Indiana when he was nine, and then to southern Illinois when he was twenty-one. They lived in poverty, and Lincoln had to work hard to help support his family.

#2

The Lincoln family’s steady generational shift from Pennsylvania to Virginia to Kentucky to Indiana reflected the gradual expansion of white settlement into the Midwest.

#3

Lincoln made two trips down the Mississippi River, the first to New Orleans to sell produce and the second to buy livestock. The first trip shaped his thinking on slavery while the second shaped his thinking on the economy of the Old Northwest.

#4

While the Founding Fathers had many moral qualms with slavery, they still felt that it was necessary for the economy to function.

#5

The invention of the cotton gin in 1793 made growing cotton profitable in areas that were previously not suitable for it, like the North American continent. This led to massive westward expansion, which was fueled by a military-cotton complex that constantly sought new lands to grow cotton on.

#6

The author visited the exact location where the author’s great-great-great-great-great-grandfather crossed the Ohio River on his journey to Illinois. The journey itself took about four days, and the author was able to see the area where the river met the Mississippi, which symbolized the transition from free states to slave states.

#7

The first time Lincoln came into contact with slavery, it was in 1841, when he helped a friend purchase twelve enslaved people in Kentucky and transport them to a plantation in the southern part of the state.

#8

Slavery was a massive issue for Lincoln, as it was for most Americans during the time he lived through.

#9

Lincoln had a very different experience on the Mississippi River when he went down with the flatboat in 1831. Instead of being revolted, he was fascinated by the slave auctions he witnessed.

#10

The North needed the