Whether reinterpreting Japan's momentous 1889 constitution, or exploring the significance of the first constitution to enfranchise all adult women on Pitcairn Island in the Pacific in 1838, this is one of the most original global histories in decades. The gun, the ship and the pen: Warfare, constitutions and the making of the modern world.By Linda Colley. Throughout, Colley demonstrates how constitutions evolved in tandem with warfare, and how they have functioned to advance empire as well as promote nations, and worked to exclude as well as liberate. Both monarchs and radicals play a role, from Catherine the Great of Russia, with her remarkable Nakaz, to Sierra Leone's James Africanus Horton, to Tunisia's Khayr-al-Din, a creator of the first modern Islamic constitution. Starting not with the United States, but with the Corsican constitution of 1755, The Gun, the Ship, and the Pen moves through every continent, disrupting accepted narratives. As her book’s title The Gun, the Ship and the Pen: Warfare, Constitutions, and the Making of the Modern World suggests, Colley makes her point by highlighting the repeated inter-meshing of transcontinental warmongering and transnational constitution-making during the early industrial age (13). Pagination: 512 pages, 1 x 16 pp plate section 20 integrated pictures, A work of extraordinary range and striking originality, The Gun, the Ship, and the Pen traces the global history of written constitutions from the 1750s to the 20th century, modifying accepted narratives and uncovering the close connections between the making of constitutions and the making of war.
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