Much is said, written, and blogged concerning the founding of the United States. To understand the basis of American government and laws, the best course is to simply ignore all the present banter and read. Read the basic documents, read accounts of how these were established, and stories of the people and events that actually happened from about 1400 to 1860. Here are good, balanced books that ignore or precede the 24/7 left-right shouting match that rots a dozen cable channels and a thousand blogs.
The documents themselves - the U.S. Constitution, the Federalist Papers and Anti-Federalist Papers describing the actual debates at the Constitutional Convention.
Accounts of the convention -Miracle at Philadelphia- and de Tocqueville's report on Democracy in America as he observed the republic 50 years after the Constitution was adopted.
Historical perspectives on ideas of liberty and law from Ancient times through Colonial in Roots of American Order. Accounts of people and events in the very readable and delightful History of the American People, by Paul Johnson. And a timeless and elegant defense of personal liberty and a caution against powerful government in The Law by Bastiat.
