Founders Recipe by Joe Wolverton

The Founding Fathers didn’t stumble into liberty — they studied it. The Founders Recipe presents the top 37 authors most often quoted and cited by America’s Founders, offering readers a direct link to the intellectual ingredients of the Constitution and Bill of Rights. From Locke, Montesquieu, and Blackstone to Cicero, Grotius, Vattel, and Sidney, these thinkers taught the principles of natural law, justice, and self-government that forged a free nation — with the hope that if we read what our Founding Fathers read, we might do what our Founding Fathers did: throw off the chains of tyranny!

Joe Wolverton, II, J.D., distills these classic works into an approachable “tasting menu,” pairing each selection with lined pages so readers can follow the Founders’ own practice of keeping a commonplace book. This simple discipline — read, ponder, record, and recall — anchors insights in memory and nurtures habits of reflection and virtue. It’s a method Wolverton has proven over 25 years of teaching, and one that continues to shape students long after the course ends.

More than a survey of ideas, this book is a call to restoration. The Founders Recipe is not about patching the Constitution with modern fixes but about restoring it with the same timeless sources that built it. Perfect for homeschool families, civic study groups, or lifelong learners, it equips a new generation to savor the wisdom of liberty and carry it forward.(2020, 330pp)