Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States or The Mind of the Terrorist

Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States

Author: Charles A Beard

This famous study — one of the most influential in the area of American economic history — brought a halt to Americans' uncritical reverence for their country's revolutionary past. Questioning the Founding Fathers' motivations in drafting the Constitution, it viewed the results as a product of economic self-interest. Perhaps the most controversial books of its time.

Library Journal

In this 1913 volume, Beard, the founder of the New School for Social Research, contends that the Founding Fathers included a clear strategy for Colonial economics in the writing of the Constitution. A staple for history and economics collections. (Classic Returns, LJ 11/1/98)

Booknews

Beard (1874-1948), who taught at Columbia University and was a founder of The New School for Social Research, uses the letters, papers, and documents of the men who took part in framing and adopting the Constitution to assess their economic interests in it. The new introduction to this classic in American historiography provides a sense of the person behind the book. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Table of Contents:

	Introduction to the Transaction Edition
	Introduction to the 1935 Edition
	Preface
I	Historical Interpretation in the United States	1
II	A Survey of Economic Interests in 1787	19
III	The Movement for the Constitution	52
IV	Property Safeguards in the Election of Delegates	64
V	The Economic Interests of the Members of the Convention	73
VI	The Constitution as an Economic Document	152
VII	The Political Doctrines of the Members of the Convention	189
VIII	The Process of Ratification	217
IX	The Popular Vote on the Constitution	289
X	The Economics of the Vote on the Constitution	253
XI	The Economic Conflict over Ratification as Viewed by Contemporaries	292
	Index	327

See also: Development or Theories of the Information Society

The Mind of the Terrorist: The Psychology of Terrorism from the IRA to Al Qaeda

Author: Jerrold M Post

In contrast to the widely held assumption that terrorists as crazed fanatics, Jerrold Post demonstrates they are psychologically “normal” and that “hatred has been bred in the bone”.  He reveals the powerful motivations that drive these ordinary people to such extraordinary evil by exploring the different types of terrorists, from national-separatists like the Irish Republican Army to social revolutionary terrorists like the Shining Path, as well as religious extremists like al-Qaeda and Aum Shinrikyo.  In The Mind of the Terrorist, Post uses his expertise to explain how the terrorist mind works and how this information can help us to combat terrorism more effectively.

Kirkus Reviews

A former CIA official tidily analyzes terrorist cells past and present. While terrorism has seemingly always existed, the seizure of the Israeli Olympic Village by the radical Palestinian Black September group during the 1972 Munich Olympics marks the modern iconic moment, says Post (Psychiatry, Political Psychology and International Affairs/George Washington Univ.). The typical terrorist, he notes, is not crazy in the sense of having a psychotic disorder, but rather is intensely loyal to a collective group. This fairly scholarly breakdown divides acts of terrorism into three broad categories. National separatists carry on the acts of vengeance practiced by their forebears: Examples include Omar Rezaq of the Abu Nidal Organization and Yasir Arafat of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), Northern Ireland's Irish Republican Army (IRA) and the Basque separatists of the ETA (Basque Homeland and Liberty). Social revolutionaries are often idealistic youth rebelling against their parents' generation, seeking social justice and embracing "the liberating influence of violence." The Red Brigades, who kidnapped former Italian prime minister Aldo Moro in 1978; the Red Army Faction, also known as the Baader-Meinhof gang; Peru's Shining Path, Marxists devoted to the plight of the poor; and the peasant-run FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) all fall under this heading. The final category, religious extremists "killing in the name of God," consists of today's most infamous terrorist cells, namely Hezbollah, Hamas and, of course, Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. Post is especially helpful in delineating the history of each group, leadership structure, tactics (most notably suicidebombing), media savvy and recruiting strategies. Interviews with various incarcerated terrorists offer chilling firsthand testimony to their motives and methods. Well-presented body of knowledge likely to be helpful in understanding these violent organized groups.