Original Meanings

978-0-394-57858-3

Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution is a non-fiction book authored by Jack N. Rakove and published on March 25, 1996 in hardcover by Knopf and on May 26, 1997 by Vintage Books in paperback. Rakove investigates the meaning of the United States Constitution in modern-day society and political topics. It won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for History.^[1]

References

^ "The 1997 Pulitzer Prize Winners: History". The Pulitzer Prizes. Columbia University. Retrieved 2011-03-05.

External links

Booknotes interview with Rakove on Original Meanings, July 6, 1997

Pulitzer Prize for History

1917–1919

With Americans of Past and Present Days by Jean Jules Jusserand (1917)
A History of the Civil War, 1861–1865 by James Ford Rhodes (1918)

1920–1939

The War with Mexico by Justin H. Smith (1920)
The Victory at Sea by William Sims and Burton J. Hendrick (1921)
The Founding of New England by James Truslow Adams (1922)
The Supreme Court in United States History by Charles Warren (1923)
The American Revolution by Charles Howard McIlwain (1924)
History of the American Frontier by Frederic L. Paxson (1925)
A History of the United States by Edward Channing (1926)
Pinckney's Treaty by Samuel Flagg Bemis (1927)
Main Currents in American Thought by Vernon Louis Parrington (1928)
The Organization and Administration of the Union Army, 1861–1865 by Fred Albert Shannon (1929)
The War of Independence by Claude H. Van Tyne (1930)
The Coming of the War, 1914 by Bernadotte E. Schmitt (1931)
My Experiences in the World War by John J. Pershing (1932)
The Significance of Sections in American History by Frederick J. Turner (1933)
The People's Choice by Herbert Agar (1934)
The Colonial Period of American History by Charles McLean Andrews (1935)
A Constitutional History of the United States by Andrew C. McLaughlin (1936)
The Flowering of New England, 1815–1865 by Van Wyck Brooks (1937)
The Road to Reunion, 1865–1900 by Paul Herman Buck (1938)
A History of American Magazines by Frank Luther Mott (1939)

1940–1959

Abraham Lincoln: The War Years by Carl Sandburg (1940)
The Atlantic Migration, 1607–1860 by Marcus Lee Hansen (1941)
Reveille in Washington, 1860–1865 by Margaret Leech (1942)
Paul Revere and the World He Lived In by Esther Forbes (1943)
The Growth of American Thought by Merle Curti (1944)
Unfinished Business by Stephen Bonsal (1945)
The Age of Jackson by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. (1946)
Scientists Against Time by James Phinney Baxter III (1947)
Across the Wide Missouri by Bernard DeVoto (1948)
The Disruption of American Democracy by Roy Franklin Nichols (1949)
Art and Life in America by Oliver W. Larkin (1950)
The Old Northwest by R. Carlyle Buley (1951)
The Uprooted by Oscar Handlin (1952)
The Era of Good Feelings by George Dangerfield (1953)
A Stillness at Appomattox by Bruce Catton (1954)
Great River by Paul Horgan (1955)
The Age of Reform by Richard Hofstadter (1956)
Russia Leaves the War by George F. Kennan (1957)
Banks and Politics in America by Bray Hammond (1958)
The Republican Era, 1869–1901 by Leonard D. White and Jean Schneider (1959)

1960–1979

In the Days of McKinley by Margaret Leech (1960)
Between War and Peace by Herbert Feis (1961)
The Triumphant Empire by Lawrence H. Gipson (1962)
Washington: Village and Capital, 1800–1878 by Constance McLaughlin Green (1963)
Puritan Village by Sumner Chilton Powell (1964)
The Greenback Era by Irwin Unger (1965)
The Life of the Mind in America by Perry Miller (1966)
Exploration and Empire by William H. Goetzmann (1967)
The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution by Bernard Bailyn (1968)
Origins of the Fifth Amendment by Leonard Levy (1969)
Present at the Creation by Dean Acheson (1970)
Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom by James MacGregor Burns (1971)
Neither Black nor White by Carl N. Degler (1972)
People of Paradox by Michael Kammen (1973)
The Americans by Daniel J. Boorstin (1974)
Jefferson and His Time by Dumas Malone (1975)
Lamy of Santa Fe by Paul Horgan (1976)
The Impending Crisis, 1848–1861 by David M. Potter (completed and edited by Don E. Fehrenbacher; 1977)
The Visible Hand by Alfred D. Chandler Jr. (1978)
The Dred Scott Case by Don E. Fehrenbacher (1979)

1980–1999

Been in the Storm So Long by Leon Litwack (1980)
American Education by Lawrence A. Cremin (1981)
Mary Chesnut's Civil War by C. Vann Woodward (1982)
The Transformation of Virginia, 1740–1790 by Rhys Isaac (1983)
Prophets of Regulation by Thomas K. McCraw (1985)
...The Heavens and the Earth by Walter A. McDougall (1986)
Voyagers to the West by Bernard Bailyn (1987)
The Launching of Modern American Science, 1846–1876 by Robert V. Bruce (1988)
Battle Cry of Freedom by James M. McPherson (1989)
Parting the Waters by Taylor Branch (1989)
In Our Image by Stanley Karnow (1990)
A Midwife's Tale by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich (1991)
The Fate of Liberty by Mark E. Neely Jr. (1992)
The Radicalism of the American Revolution by Gordon S. Wood (1993)
No Ordinary Time by Doris Kearns Goodwin (1995)
William Cooper's Town by Alan Taylor (1996)
Original Meanings by Jack N. Rakove (1997)
Summer for the Gods by Edward J. Larson (1998)
Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 by Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace (1999)

2000–2021

Freedom from Fear by David M. Kennedy (2000)
Founding Brothers by Joseph Ellis (2001)
The Metaphysical Club by Louis Menand (2002)
An Army at Dawn by Rick Atkinson (2003)
A Nation Under Our Feet by Steven Hahn (2004)
Washington's Crossing by David Hackett Fischer (2005)
Polio: An American Story by David Oshinsky (2006)
The Race Beat by Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff (2007)
What Hath God Wrought by Daniel Walker Howe (2008)
The Hemingses of Monticello by Annette Gordon-Reed (2009)
Lords of Finance by Liaquat Ahamed (2010)
The Fiery Trial by Eric Foner (2011)
Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention by Manning Marable (2012)
Embers of War by Fredrik Logevall (2013)
The Internal Enemy by Alan Taylor (2014)
Encounters at the Heart of the World by Elizabeth A. Fenn (2015)
Custer's Trials by T. J. Stiles (2016)
Blood in the Water by Heather Ann Thompson (2017)
The Gulf by Jack E. Davis (2018)
Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom by David W. Blight (2019)
Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America by W. Caleb McDaniel (2020)
Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America by Marcia Chatelain (2021)
Covered with Night by Nicole Eustace / Cuba: An American History by Ada Ferrer (2022)
Freedom's Dominion by Jefferson Cowie (2023)
No Right to an Honest Living: The Struggles of Boston’s Black Workers in the Civil War Era by Jacqueline Jones (2024)