The Gun, the Ship, and the Pen: Warfare, Constitutions, and the Making of the Modern World

From the 1750s to the 20th century, Colley traces the interconnected makings of modern constitutions around the globe. While Colley’s narrative focuses on how these constitutions were often a mechanism of the disenfranchisement for people of color, women, and indigenous peoples, she also explores how some constitutions paved the way for democratic revolution, and in some specific instances modeled what an equal society for all could look like. The Gun, the Ship, and the Pen is a historical account of the development of revolutionary ideas that altered humanity’s understanding of government, society, and modernization.