My adventures in literature lead me to " A Short History of Europe " and then a side road to Thomas More's " Utopia ". Then to HG Wells' " A Modern Utopia " and, returning to a book that was waiting for all this, " Mild Voice of Reason: Deliberation " and the " Federalist Papers ". The two Utopias and the Papers (as commented on by Deliberation) are about the same subject: what would be the perfect society -- the Utopia that should replace the repressive rule of English kings? There is a progression from More to the US Constitution of 1787. Most people imagine that the Constitution magically popped into existence as soon as the States declared independence in 1776. In fact, many confuse the stirring rhetoric of the Declaration of Independence with the Constitution. It took over 10 years for the colonies to establish anything like functioning government. They fought a war with the world's most powerful nation without a f...