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Book

We the people : a history of the U.S. Constitution

Call Number

  • 342.73 L598 (CEN, EAS, OSH, POW, WSQ)

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Edition

First edition.

Publication Information

New York, NY : Liveright Publishing Corporation, a division of W. W. Norton & Company, [2025]

Physical Description

xii, 702 pages : illustrations, portraits, charts, facsimiles ; 25 cm

Summary

"The U.S. Constitution is among the oldest constitutions in the world but also one of the most difficult to amend. Jill Lepore, Harvard professor of history and law, explains why in We the People, the most original history of the Constitution in decades--and an essential companion to her landmark history of the United States, These Truths. Published on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the nation's founding--the anniversary, too, of the first state constitutions--We the People offers a wholly new history of the Constitution."-- Book jacket.

Contents

  • Introduction: The philosophy of amendment
  • Part One. The invention of the Constitution, 1774-1791. 1. The constitution of a clock
  • 2. All men would be tyrants
  • 3. Every gentleman may propose amendments
  • Part Two. The contest over interpretation, 1803-1896. 4. Let us examine the word white
  • 5. The whole rebellion is beyond the Constitution
  • 6. No amendment is necessary
  • 7. We began this quilt
  • Part Three. The pattern of amendment, 1905-1959. 8. Mr. Constitution
  • 9. Miss Bolsheviki
  • 10. The lost amendment
  • Part Four. The end of amendment, 1961-2016. 11. The subcommittee on constitutional amendments
  • 12. A bill of rights for women
  • 13. The Constitution is dead!
  • Epilogue. The future of constitutionalism.

Subjects