Still hazy after all these years: the economic interpretation and the cloudy legacy of empirical analysis : Beard's thesis: an interpretation ; The case against Beard's economic interpretation ; Recasting the economic interpretation ; Conclusions and inconclusiveness: what empirical analysis has and has not established
2. Democracy and the founder's Constitution: toward a balanced assessment : The contours of the continuing confrontation ; Confronting the hermeneutic impasse ; The strategy and limitations of this analysis ; The question of inclusiveness ; Accountability and responsiveness ; Political equality and apportionment ; Thinking clearly and talking intelligently about democracy and good government
3. How should we study the American Founding? In defense of historically sensitive political philosophy : Bailyn and Wood: enveloping behavioralism and idealism ; Skinner: challenging "great books" and "perennial questions" ; Pocock: studying political languages ; The contributions of the linguistic contextualists ; The inadequacies of linguistic contextualism ; Interpreting the American founding: historical integrity and the paradox of relevance
4. Ancients, moderns, and Americans: the republicanism-liberalism debate revisited : Transcending republicanism versus liberalism ; The multiple traditions approach: alternative ; Interpretations of interaction ; Retrospect: what we should have learned ; Prospect: the agenda for scholars
5. Taking historiography seriously: On identity, democracy, authority, and appropriation : The essence of the American amalgam: which traditions? Whose multiple traditions approach? ; The Founders' contribution to the history of political thought ; From intention to consequence: the development and character of American democracy ; Appropriation and authority: the relevance and irrelevance of the American founding.
