Open research questions in American Constitutional Law and Politics

What the literature leaves open

• He said his role in the PBC was limited to a seat on the Illinois chapter’s steering committee. ”75 There were other mitigating factors, including that the locus of bicentennial activity was not limited to the District but was decentralized to include places such as Philadelphia, where President Ford traveled to deliver Independence Day remarks.

  Making Protest Patriotic Again: The Peoples Bicentennial Commission and America’s 200th Anniversary in 1976 · 2026 · DOI

• Elizabeth Ellis Miller’s Liturgy of Change: Rhetorics of the Civil Rights Mass Meeting examines a central but understudied rhetorical event of the civil rights movement: the mass meeting at which organizers, citizens, and even civil rights detractors gathered to learn more about civic issues in the local community, engage in rhetorical performance, and determine plans for participating in future acts of resistance.

  Liturgy of Change: Rhetorics of the Civil Rights Mass Meeting, by Elizabeth Ellis Miller · 2026 · DOI

• ” (Y6 class teacher, school A) School practitioners favoured the use of resources and materials to meet children’s needs, but in practice, it was noted that the use of materials and resources was insufficient to meet different needs since lack of language remained a source of 208 stress for TAs and teachers.

  The Black Atlantic at Thirty: Implications for the Canon and for Publication and Instruction · 2024 · DOI

• American Enlightenments does not strive after one answer to the question, what was the American Enlightenment? In fact, Winterer often determines that there was “no consensus” (143).

  American Enlightenments: Pursuing Happiness in the Age of Reason · 2019 · DOI

• 2 [End Page 21] Although much of Veracini’s scholarship has revolved around Palestinian-Israeli relations, it should come as no surprise that his settler colonial analyses have found their way into film: over the last fifteen years the once little known field has flourished to the point that it now dominates journals, conferences, and publications spanning numerous fields.

  I Remember You: Postironic Belief and Settler Colonialism in Stephen Graham Jones's <em>Ledfeather</em> · 2016 · DOI

• However, few scholars have explored the aftermath of Hamilton’s death, leaving the July 15, 1804 funeral procession through the New York City’s streets to the Trinity Church graveyard understudied.

  Remembering Alexander Hamilton: The Political Impact of Street Theatre in the Early Republic · 2014 · DOI

• Little known about the now celebrated 1912 Bread and Roses strike is that prominent Progressive-era reformers condemned the strikers as “uncivil” and “violent.

  Informed, Passionate, and Disorderly: Uncivil Rhetoric in a New Gilded Age · 2012 · DOI

• Quotes from Gordon’s public speeches constitute good evidence, but how do we know that annotations to a hymnal were actually made by Bogle or that these annotations were of particular significance to him? Bogle left no theological writings and there is much about Bogle’s beliefs and motivations that will forever remain unknown.

  The Cross and the Machete: Native Baptists of Jamaica - Identity, Ministry and Legacy (review) · 2012 · DOI

• Mary Astell's neglected critique of Shaftesbury's Letter Concerning Enthusiasm (1708) rejects his vision of religious tolerance because it is insufficiently committed to the ideals of reason and rational-critical public debate.

  Reason and Religious Tolerance: Mary Astell's Critique of Shaftesbury · 2011 · DOI

• Rosavich indicates that this petition, which was signed by slaves Prime and Prince (about whom little is known) and which describes itself as “The Petition of the Negroes in the Towns of Stratford and Fairfield,” was written in the hand of attorney Jonathan Sturges (80–82).

  Descendents of Africa, Sons of ′76: Exploring Early African-American Rhetoric · 2006 · DOI

• In the wake of the Great War, Nicholas Murray Butler, the CEIP's second president, decided that the institution's prewar focus on research and legalism was insufficient to meet the threat posed to “civilization” by continued war and revolution.

  N<scp>icholas</scp> M<scp>urray</scp> B<scp>utler, the</scp> C<scp>arnegie</scp> E<scp>ndowment for</scp> I<scp>nternational</scp> P<scp>eace, and the</scp> S<scp>earch for</scp> R<scp>econciliation in</scp> E<scp>urope</scp>, 1919–1933 · 2006 · DOI

• Why did Great Britain remain neutral during the American Civil War? Although several historical arguments have been put forth, few studies have explicitly used International Relations (IR) theories to understand this decision.

  Ontological security and the power of self-identity: British neutrality and the American Civil War · 2005 · DOI

• The Court of Appeals reversed on August 18, 1958, holding that overt acts of violence are insufficient to constitute a legal basis for suspension of the plan to integrate the public schools in Little Rock.

  From Birth to the Bench: A Quiet but Persuasive Leader · 2005

• The article suggests on these grounds that an American-centered view of the USA, understanding the US as a sui generis formation is insufficient to understand the US past or present; such an understanding requires constant attention to the entanglement of the USA in the world and of the world in the USA.

  American Studies in the time of Empire · 2004 · DOI

• (10) Yet Sir William Blackstone's famous defense of press freedom was limited to the absence of prior restraint with warnings against the extension of protection to the publication of what was improper, mifchievous, or illegal.

  Expressive Liberties in the State Courts: Their Permissible Reach and Sanctioned Restraints · 2004

• Lewis Henry Morgan (1818–1881) is remembered today primarily as a marginal nineteenth-century ethnologist, whose contribution to anthropology was limited to the inception of kinship studies.

  National Appropriations and Cultural Evolution: The Spatial and Temporal US of Lewis Henry Morgan’s Native America · 2003 · DOI

• Abstract John Quincy Adams's speech on behalf of the kidnapped Africans aboard the slave ship Amistad points to a troubling dilemma in rhetoric: that the power of rhetoric is limited by the audience's perception of what is plausible, and that can, as in the case of the Amistad argument, mean that outrageously unjust but intransigent and powerful interests set the limits of discourse.

  John Quincy Adams ‘s amistad argument: The problem of outrage; or, the constraints of decorum · 2002 · DOI

• In I79I-I792 Madison penned a set of notes that, though rarely studied and never comprehensively treated by scholars, epitomizes his political theory and may well be the key to solving the problem of Madison.

  The Politics of Public Opinion: James Madison's "Notes on Government" · 1992 · DOI

• However, so long as the eyes of politicians are focused upon the Canadian North and upon that precise legal term " sovereignty ", currently employed very imprecisely in Canada,53 then so long will the armed forces seek to cloak their desires to maintain a serious 49 The House of Commons had not investigated this area of policy prior to 1972.

  The true north strong and free · 1972 · DOI

• 73 The assumption that writing and speaking should be studied together in the class- room indicates the belletristic unification of language study.

  Rhetoric in some American periodicals, 1815–1850 · 1970 · DOI

• is, as the author suggests, two-fold: (1) to view contemporary agitation with more ob- jectivity and (2) to note similarities in the speaking of agitators which then can be phrased as gen- eralizations. In view of these goals, the author's definition of agitation lacks clarity. Any contemporary speech which is concerned with remedying a social injustice seems to fall within the bounds of the author's amoral definition and ambiguous pre- conditions of agitation. The correctness of the definition is notinquestion.Thepointisthat the ability to identify who is an agitator and who is not is crucial to a profitable study of contemporary agitation and to formulation of theories. The book does not present sufficient information to make this iden- tification. This does not, however, negate the fact that it presents a sound basis for more investigation. 53 Downloaded by [] at 04:23 27 December 2014 ethnic pressure group operable within the existing structure of American politics with the goal of "an effective share in the total power of the society." That Black Power is the creation of American society is evident to the most casual reader of the Kerner Report, which concludes that "our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white- separate and unequal." The objective of the com- mission's crash program notably resembles the goal of Black Power: "The major goal is the creation of a true union—a single society and a single American identity." (p. 23) Although the objectives are similar, the methods for achieving them reflect the bifurcation of the two societies. Carmichael and Hamiltonpropose an unilateral closing of ranks—the formation of an effective Negro pressure group. The riot com- mission's recommendations are obvioulsly those of patron to benefactor: Opening up opportunities to those who are restricted by racial segregation and dis- crimination, and eliminating all barriers to their choice of jobs, education and housing.

  Book review section · 1968 · DOI

• About 1908 I had printed for my classes the two chap- ters "Conversing with an Audience" and "Further Study of Delivery," though modified since then.

  The break with elocution—<i>the origins of James A. Winans’ public speaking</i> · 1958 · DOI

• —A similar increase in emphasis • was taking place at Yale, - and • changes occurred rapidly enough that a Yale graduate of 1714 would write in 1779, "Oratory was but little known, studied, or famed, to what it is now.

  The development of rhetorical theory in America, 1635–1850 · 1947 · DOI

• 19181 REMOVAL FROM PUBLIC SERVICE 583 instrument of democratic control was either not understood or was dis- counted with the idea that a “safe” candidate for governor, running on a “safe” platform could be assured.

  The Massachusetts convention and responsible government · 1918 · DOI

• It there- fore remains to be confessed that not only is there much in these volumes which is sound, important, and deeply philosophical, but that they also contain many passages, which, singled out, would seem to reverse the general, conclusions at which the author arrives.

  The Political Ethics of Herbert Spencer · 1894 · DOI

Most-cited papers in American Constitutional Law and Politics

• Ontological security and the power of self-identity: British neutrality and the American Civil War · Review of International Studies · 2005 · 185 citations
• EMPIRE AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS IN VICTORIAN POLITICAL THOUGHT · The Historical Journal · 2006 · 62 citations
• Epistemic oppression, resistance, and resurgence · Contemporary Political Theory · 2021 · 56 citations
• Fugitive Listening: Sounds from the Undercommons · Theory Culture & Society · 2020 · 51 citations
• The right side of history, inc.: Social issues management, social license to operate, and the Obergefell v. Hodges decision · Public Relations Review · 2020 · 31 citations
• Fred Moten’s Refusals and Consents: The Politics of Fugitivity · Political Theory · 2020 · 27 citations
• Performing rituals of affliction: how a Governor’s Press conferences provided mediatized sanctuary in Ohio · American Journal of Cultural Sociology · 2020 · 24 citations
• THE ORIGINS OF RACISM: A CRITIQUE OF THE HISTORY OF IDEAS · History and Theory · 2020 · 23 citations
• Resisting Reproduction: Reconsidering Slave Contraception in the Old South · Journal of American Studies · 2001 · 21 citations
• Nussbaum, Anger, and Racial Justice: On the Epistemological and Eschatological Limitations of White Liberalism · Political Theology · 2020 · 19 citations

Most recent work

• Against Abolitionism · New left review · 2026
• Our Heroes, Your Villains: How Americans Polarize Around Historical Figures · Sociological Quarterly · 2026
• Saving Enlightenment: Jefferson’s Bible, Douglass’s Faith, and the Work of the Spirit · Modern Intellectual History · 2026
• Alexander Hamilton, Tench Coxe, and the Diversity of Talents: A Neglected Argument in Early American Protectionist Thought · History of Economics Review · 2026
• The Many Faces of Benjamin Rush · Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society held at Philadelphia for promoting useful knowledge · 2026
• The APS and the Pursuit of Happiness · Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society held at Philadelphia for promoting useful knowledge · 2026
• Tiktok v. Garland and the First Amendment Anticanon · The Supreme Court Review · 2026
• The Foundations of English Anti-Democratic Thought c.1630s–1880s: Historiography, Method <i>and</i> History · History of Political Thought · 2026
• The Concept of Individualism in American Historical Communities · Communal Societies · 2026
• Review of Shaking the Faith: Women, Family, and Mary Marshall Dyer’s Anti-Shaker Campaign, 1815-1867 · Communal Societies · 2026

Related topics in Social Sciences