Books by Carl Becker

According to Carl Becker "if the framers of the Constitution could come back to earth and see what the federal government is doing to-day, they would all agree that this monstrous thing was no child of theirs; for to-day the federal government exercises as a matter of course powers which they never dreamed of

This reissued work is placed in historical perspective by Professor Kammen in his introduction. He sees the author as offering a "creative synthesis" of views of American democracy. Becker argues that the framers of the original American constitution would not approve of the current government.