By Gordon S. Wood, Penguin Press, New York, N.Y. 385 pages, $29.95

Advocates of “original intent” as the criterion for constitutional interpretation will have trouble with “The Idea of America.” A collection of 11 essays by a Pulitzer Prize winning historian, the book shows that what the Founding Fathers had in mind and put into effect was far more complicated than what appears from the words of the Constitution.