Close-up of America IV: Like a comet

Author: Lin Da
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-03-01
Features: This book first traces the fundamental process of the development and relative maturation of the constitutional democracy in the United States through a series of stories surrounding the 1787 Philadelphia Constitutional Convention. The author follows the progress of the convention, step by step, narrating and ( does not need translation) the thoughts on the ideological soil, historical opportunities, and basic concepts of the institutional design in the U.S. Constitution. It describes the political wisdom of early American thinkers and statesmen in adhering to the rules of the game when facing various different viewpoints, demonstrating their political wisdom through exchanges and compromises. At the same time, it analyzes the issues and historical limitations within the U.S. constitutional system.
Secondly, through the story of the 1960s U.S. anti-Vietnam War movement, where media outlets such as The New York Times and The Washington Post, leveraging constitutional power, confronted the then U.S. government administrative authorities in the revelation of the so-called "Pentagon Papers," the operational mechanisms of American-style democracy are highlighted, as well as the dilemmas of the system in the face of new crises.