Also: John M. Butterworth on Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.
A nice article on Balsamic vinegar.
*edited*
In response to my query, Mr. Larison writes:
For the Founders’ understanding of the relevant legal and political issues, I would have to recommend the primary sources of their own writings first and foremost (Regnery has a good edition of the political writings of John Adams with which I am familiar, and Jefferson’s writings are widely available), together with a combined reading of Filmer’s Patriarcha and Sydney’s Discourse Concerning Government (which was the Whig rebuttal of Filmer). There are several collections of Antifederalist and Federalist writings surrounding the ratification debates that convey the rival conceptions of the legal and political traditions both sides in the debates on the Constitution shared. As for studies of the more general background, I recommend The Language of Liberty by J.C.D. Clark for understanding the rhetorical and political tradition in which the Founders were working (this study extends beyond the Revolutionary period into the early 19th century, and treats both “sides” of the Anglo-American world together).
For the immediate post-independence period I recommend The Jeffersonian Persuasion by Lance Banning, particularly the connections it makes between the tradition of Country dissent against the Court (as represented by Bolingbroke) that the Jeffersonians relied upon in making their critiques of cities, merchants the “monied interest.” For some of the historical background of the 17th century, Crisis of Parliaments by the late Lord Russell is fairly good for the basic narrative up to the Civil War (I cannot claim that Russell is without his biases, but he was a good enough historian to keep them from overwhelming his interpretation). I’m afraid that American history is my amateur interest, not my professional area of expertise, so I am undoubtedly neglecting many very good and probably more important volumes that will help you more than my scattershot recommendations. I hope these help.
