Upon publication The Law Quarterly Review praised this book, noting that "great learning is manifest in these pages." Originally published: Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1940. ix, 162 pp. McIlwain examines of the rise of constitutionalism from the "democratic strands" in the works of Aristotle and Cicero through the transitional moment between the medieval and the modern eras. He concludes with a discussion of the forces of despotism that were threatening constitutionally based individual freedom in the 1930s. Reprint of the first edition.