Published in 1907 as the Progressive movement was moving into high gear, J. Allen Smith's The Spirit of American Government attracted a flurry of attention with its thesis that the country's current ills came from a designedly undemocratic Constitution. But he faded back into obscurity until his longtime friend and University of Washington colleague Vernon L. Parrington dedicated the first two volumes of his influential Main Currents in American Thought (1927) to "J. Allen Smith Scholar Teacher Democrat Gentleman." In his third volume (1930), Parrington identified Smith as a pioneer in shattering the myths surrounding the nation's fundamental law that underpinned the status quo. Following this lead, the custodians of the American liberal pantheon elevated Smith to its ranks. Walton H. Hamilton eulogized The Spirit of American Government as "a breath of fresh air" that swept away the conventional wisdom's "comfortable assurance of fundamental principles and eternal verities"; Eric F. Goldman...