With the Constitution being invoked more and more in American politics, it’s now more important than ever before that you understand the guiding principles and significance of the document that shaped American democracy.
Each year on September 17th, Constitution Day offers us a moment to reflect on the profound impact of the United States Constitution. Constitution Day (and Citizenship Day) commemorates the signing of the U.S. Constitution on September 17, 1787 by the delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.
This cornerstone of American democracy has guided our nation for over two centuries, shaping our principles, rights, and the very fabric of our society. To honor this pivotal day, here are some books available with your Livingston Library card that delve into the history, interpretation, and enduring relevance of this remarkable document.
American Covenant : How the Constitution Unified Our Nation — and Could Again by Yuval Levin
Blending engaging history with lucid analysis, conservative scholar Levin’s American Covenant recovers the Constitution’s true genius and reveals how it charts a path to repairing America’s fault lines. Uncovering the framers’ sophisticated grasp of political division, Levin showcases the Constitution’s exceptional power to facilitate constructive disagreement, negotiate resolutions to disputes, and forge unity in a fractured society. Clear-eyed about the ways that contemporary politics have malfunctioned, Levin also offers practical solutions for reforming those aspects of the constitutional order that have gone awry.
American Epic : Reading the U.S. Constitution by Garrett Epps
Epps, a legal scholar who is also a journalist and writer of prize-winning fiction, takes readers on a literary tour of the Constitution, finding in it much that is interesting, puzzling, praiseworthy, and sometimes hilarious. Reading the Constitution like a literary work yields a host of meanings that shed new light on what it means to be an American.
The Constitution Explained : a Guide For Every American by David L. Hudson
This guide takes an even-handed approach to controversial issues and explores various points of view. It sheds a light on the differing and changing interpretations of the many broadly worded key phrases in the Constitution. You’ll learn how the Constitution has been adopted to different times and various situations. You’ll learn what it does-and does not-promise U.S. citizens. Richly illustrated, it also has a helpful bibliography, glossary, and extensive index.
The Constitution in Jeopardy : an Unprecedented Effort to Rewrite our Fundamental Law and What We Can Do About It by Russ Feingold
A former U.S. senator joins a legal scholar to examine a hushed effort to radically change our Constitution, offering a warning and a way forward. Over the last two decades, a fringe plan to call a convention under the Constitution’s amendment mechanism–the nation’s first ever–has inched through statehouses. Delegates, like those in Philadelphia two centuries ago, would exercise nearly unlimited authority to draft changes to our fundamental law, potentially altering anything from voting and free speech rights to regulatory and foreign policy powers. Such a watershed moment would present great danger, and for some, great power. In this important book, Feingold and Prindiville distill extensive legal and historical research and examine the grave risks inherent in this effort. But they also consider the role of constitutional amendment in modern life.
The Fight for Free Speech : Ten Cases that Define our First Amendment Freedoms by Ian Rosenberg
An accessible, engaging user’s guide to free speech. Media lawyer Rosenberg distills the spectrum of free speech law down to ten critical issues. Each chapter in this book focuses on a contemporary free speech question–from student walkouts for gun safety to Samantha Bee’s expletives, from Nazis marching in Charlottesville to the muting of adult film star Stormy Daniels– and then identifies, unpacks, and explains the key Supreme Court case that provides the answers. Together these fascinating stories create a practical framework for understanding where our free speech protections originated and how they can develop in the future.
The Framers’ Coup : the Making of the United States Constitution by Michael J. Klarman
Based on prodigious research and told largely through the voices of the participants, Klarman narrates how the Framers’ clashing interests shaped the Constitution – and American history itself. Not only does Klarman capture the knife’s-edge atmosphere of the Philadelphia Convention, he populates his narrative with riveting and colorful stories: the rebellion of debtor farmers in Massachusetts; George Washington’s uncertainty about whether to attend; Gunning Bedford’s threat to turn to a European prince if the small states were denied equal representation in the Senate; slave staters’ threats to take their marbles and go home if denied representation for their slaves; Hamilton’s quasi-monarchist speech to the convention; and Patrick Henry’s herculean efforts to defeat the Constitution in Virginia through demagoguery and conspiracy theories.
How to Interpret the Constitution by Cass R. Sunstein
In this brief and urgent book, Harvard Law School professor Sunstein provides a lively introduction to competing approaches to interpreting the Constitution–and argues that the only way to choose one is to ask whether it would change American life for the better or worse. If a method of interpretation would eliminate the right of privacy, allow racial segregation, or obliterate free speech, it would be unacceptable for that reason. But some Supreme Court justices are committed to “originalism,” arguing that the meaning of the Constitution is settled by how it was publicly understood when it was ratified. Originalists insist that their approach is dictated by the Constitution. That, Sunstein argues, is a big mistake. The Constitution doesn’t contain instructions for its own interpretation. Any approach to constitutional interpretation needs to be defended in terms of its broad effects–what it does to our rights and our institutions. It must respect those rights and institutions–and safeguard the conditions for democracy itself.
The Originalism Trap : How Extremists Stole the Constitution and How We the People Can Take it Back by Madiba K. Dennie
Originalism deliberately over-emphasizes a particular version of history that treats civil rights gains as categorically suspect. According to Dennie, it’s time to let it go. The Originalism Trap discards originalism in favor of a new approach that serves everyone: inclusive constitutionalism. Dennie disentangles the Constitution’s ideals from originalist ideology and emphasizes the power of the Reconstruction Amendments. These post-Civil War amendments, which are conveniently ignored by originalists, sought to build a democracy with equal membership for marginalized persons. The Originalism Trap argues that the law must serve to make that promise of democracy real.
The People’s Constitution : 200 Years, 27 Amendments, and the Promise of a More Perfect Union by John F. Kowal
In this cogently written history of the Constitution and its 27 Amendments, academics Kowal and Codrington take the long view, examining how sociocultural and historical forces have combined at crucial moments in the American story to foment change in the scope and interpretation of the founding documents.
A Pocket Guide to the US Constitution by Andrew Bernard Arnold
This handy guide helps readers understand, quickly and in nontechnical language, the US Constitution. Historian Arnold provides a simple, non-partisan, line-by-line commentary with concise explanations of the Constitution’s meaning and history, offering little known facts and anecdotes about all twenty-seven amendments, and discusses key Supreme Court cases through the ages.
Reading the Constitution: Why I Chose Pragmatism, Not Textualism by Stephen G. Bryer
An analysis by recently retired Supreme Court Justice Breyer that deconstructs the textualist philosophy of the current Supreme Court’s supermajority and makes the case for a better way to interpret the Constitution.
The United States of Anonymous : How the First Amendment Shaped Online Speech by Jeff Kosseff
This book traces the history of the right to anonymous speech in America, dating back to the pseudonymous publication of the Federalist Papers and other foundational political writings. It examines how courts have recognized a First Amendment right to anonymity, and how that right has shaped the Internet that we know today.
U.S. Constitution for Dummies by M.T.W. Arnheim
Walks readers through the Constitutional text, discussing how various articles and amendments have guided legislators and judges, sparked ongoing debates, and continue to influence Americans’ lives.
This guide explores the construction of the American government as it was laid out in the Constitution, delving into the rights and liberties granted and protected by the document through a detailed examination of each Article and Amendment. From the Preamble to the 27th Amendment, this primer is packed with information about the document that has defined the American political and judicial systems for more than two centuries.
The Words That Made Us : America’s Constitutional Conversation, 1760-1840 by Akhil Reed Amar
Constitutional scholar Amar tells the story of America’s constitutional conversation during its first eighty years–from the Constitution’s birth in 1760 through the 1830s, when the last of America’s early leaders died. Amar traces the threads of Constitutional discourse, uniting history and law in a narrative that seeks both to reveal this history anew and to make clear who was right and who was wrong on the biggest legal issues confronting early America.
The Year of Living Constitutionally : One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Constitution’s Original Meaning by A. J. Jacobs
Jacobs chronicles his hilarious adventures in attempting to follow the original meaning of the Constitution, as he searches for answers to one of the most pressing issues of our time: How should we interpret America’s foundational document? Discussions with academics and a wealth of research inform his freewheeling, pragmatic, humorous take on the evolving meaning of the Constitution.
Links to Additional Resources
https://www.archives.gov/news/topics/constitution-day
https://constitutioncenter.org/
–Archana Chiplunkar, Adult Services & Acquisitions Librarian