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Magna Carta: Text and Commentary
A classic classroom reference since its 1964 publication, this indispensable volume offers the full text of Magna Carta in English, as well as a chapter-by-chapter discussion of its history and provisions.
In his newly revised commentary on this founding document in the history of constitutionally limited governments, A.E. Dick Howard places the charter in context of the extraordinary surge of constitutionalism in the aftermath of the Cold War. Magna Carta: Text and Commentary is a cogent introduction to Magna Carta that students everywhere can readily appreciate.
72 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1997
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 30, 2025
Wonderful text and commentary...foundational to the understanding of democracy. I often wonder how many people in power really read the fundamental texts that shape us; I think that this book is very important and still very relevant today. A.E. Dick Howard has done a fine job of making this text very accessible - this book will be one that I will read again so that I can keep up to date with all the current political issues we will continue to face in the years to come.
August 28, 2014
The Magna Carta is one of those important documents with which I was just nominally familiar. I remember learning about it briefly over the years in different history classes throughout high school and college (I think we even had to memorize the date that it was agreed to -- 15 June 1215), but I never really realized until reading this book just how very important this document and its history is to modern systems of government and justice. The commentary section situates the historic events behind the Magna Carta and also establishes its relevancy in the modern world, particularly in the UK and the US, but elsewhere as well. This part was fascinating, but I could have gone for a longer history section. The text of the document, as translated, was also interesting, but not so much as the commentary, partly because the commentary section already discussed those sections of the Magna Carta which are so relevant to documents like the U.S. Constitution and partly due to the fact that so much of the original document is not universal (though those parts that are were groundbreaking), but deals with particular grievances in England in the 13th century.
The book includes in it a few images -- one of King John, one a greatly reduced copy of one of the four surviving original manuscripts and one of the meadow and island at Runnymede, Surrey, where King John agreed to the demands laid out in what is now known as the Magna Carta. The old, tired saying is that a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, in this case, these pictures were worth more words than I could possibly count. To think it was not in a king's palace or a court house that the demands laid out in one of the most important historical documents were agreed to, but in a simple meadow.
The book itself had yellowed pages that had acquired a bit of a musty smell over the course of its fifty years, and although it probably smells much fresher than any papers dating back to the 13th century, the combination of the book's effects on my olfactory senses and the effects of the images on my visual senses transported my imagination back to the year 1215. It was so easy to imagine the events discussed and, having re-read last year many important documents in U.S. history, such as the Declaration of Independence, the Federalist Papers and the U.S. Constitution, it gave me a new appreciation for all this.
To think, in a meadow in Runnymede, Surrey, the course of history would forever be changed. To think that there the rights of men that we all too often take for granted today were established, that there "the idea of freedom from arbitrary government" would take root. And under so many circumstances the course of events could have all turned out so differently, but instead the Magna Carta became more firmly established and accepted over the years as "law of the land."
While I am glad that I read the text of the actual document, as much of it is very specific to the times it is dated. But other parts are universal, if ambiguous (not unlike the U.S. Constitution, laying out rights for "all the free men") and have helped guide the way for so many of our modern systems of government. It's doubtful that I will read the Magna Carta again any time soon, but I would love to learn more of the history behind it, for as with any historical lesson there is more than one perspective in which the story can be told.
The book includes in it a few images -- one of King John, one a greatly reduced copy of one of the four surviving original manuscripts and one of the meadow and island at Runnymede, Surrey, where King John agreed to the demands laid out in what is now known as the Magna Carta. The old, tired saying is that a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, in this case, these pictures were worth more words than I could possibly count. To think it was not in a king's palace or a court house that the demands laid out in one of the most important historical documents were agreed to, but in a simple meadow.
The book itself had yellowed pages that had acquired a bit of a musty smell over the course of its fifty years, and although it probably smells much fresher than any papers dating back to the 13th century, the combination of the book's effects on my olfactory senses and the effects of the images on my visual senses transported my imagination back to the year 1215. It was so easy to imagine the events discussed and, having re-read last year many important documents in U.S. history, such as the Declaration of Independence, the Federalist Papers and the U.S. Constitution, it gave me a new appreciation for all this.
To think, in a meadow in Runnymede, Surrey, the course of history would forever be changed. To think that there the rights of men that we all too often take for granted today were established, that there "the idea of freedom from arbitrary government" would take root. And under so many circumstances the course of events could have all turned out so differently, but instead the Magna Carta became more firmly established and accepted over the years as "law of the land."
While I am glad that I read the text of the actual document, as much of it is very specific to the times it is dated. But other parts are universal, if ambiguous (not unlike the U.S. Constitution, laying out rights for "all the free men") and have helped guide the way for so many of our modern systems of government. It's doubtful that I will read the Magna Carta again any time soon, but I would love to learn more of the history behind it, for as with any historical lesson there is more than one perspective in which the story can be told.
July 22, 2021
In 1215, the rebellious barons of England forced King John of England to sign the Great Charter. They had no intention of doing anything other than setting limits on Crown power in order to safeguard their own prerogatives. However, the idea that absolute power could be curbed by an agreement between ruler and ruled, that a piece of paper could restrain a king, proved a spark that would set the world aflame.
I had never read the Magna Carta, although I knew its significance to constitutional history. It’s a short document, and more parochial than you’d expect. (It’s good to know all the fishweirs were removed from the Thames.) The commentary in this slim volume, then, was invaluable for enriching my understanding of its more obscure bits as well as the turbulence that led to a meadow called Runnymede.
Probably the most startling provision is the one authorizing the barons to elect 25 of their number to decide whether or not the king is keeping faith, and to raise a rebellion and conquer the king’s castles if they — and they alone — decide that the king has breached the agreement. Given the mythic proportions the Great Charter attained in the hearts of Englishmen, this provision throws the struggles of the North American colonists, culminating in the American Revolution, into much stronger historical relief for me.
I had never read the Magna Carta, although I knew its significance to constitutional history. It’s a short document, and more parochial than you’d expect. (It’s good to know all the fishweirs were removed from the Thames.) The commentary in this slim volume, then, was invaluable for enriching my understanding of its more obscure bits as well as the turbulence that led to a meadow called Runnymede.
Probably the most startling provision is the one authorizing the barons to elect 25 of their number to decide whether or not the king is keeping faith, and to raise a rebellion and conquer the king’s castles if they — and they alone — decide that the king has breached the agreement. Given the mythic proportions the Great Charter attained in the hearts of Englishmen, this provision throws the struggles of the North American colonists, culminating in the American Revolution, into much stronger historical relief for me.
August 10, 2011
Interesting, and I think it did what it was supposed to, i.e., gave the text of the Magna Carta. The subtitle indicates commentary, but there's very little of that.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews