000			04488nam a2200481 i 4500
001			on1490364622
003			OCoLC
005			20251120160210.0
008			250203t20252025nyua e b 001 0 eng d
020			_a1631496085 _q(hardback) : _c$39.99
020			_a9781631496080 _q(hardback) : _c$39.99
035			_a(OCoLC)1490364622
040			_aYDX _beng _erda _cYDX _dHVL _dIEB _dOCLCO _dSDD _dRNL _dTE7 _dCOO _dGP5 _dMDB
043			_an-us---
050		4	_aKF4541 _b.L37 2025
082	0	4	_a342.7302/9 _223/eng/20250911
082	0	4	_a973
100	1		_aLepore, Jill, _d1966- _eauthor.
245	1	0	_aWe the people : _ba history of the U.S. Constitution / _cJill Lepore.
246	3		_aHistory of the United States Constitution
246	3	0	_aHistory of the U.S. Constitution
250			_aFirst edition.
264		1	_aNew York : _bLiveright Publishing Corporation, _c[2025]
264		4	_c� 2025
300			_axii, 702 pages : _billustrations ; _c25 cm
336			_atext _btxt _2rdacontent
337			_aunmediated _bn _2rdamedia
338			_avolume _bnc _2rdacarrier
504			_aIncludes bibliographical references (pages 589-664) and index.
520			_a"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. "One of the Constitution's founding purposes was to prevent change," Lepore writes. "Another was to allow for change without violence." Relying on the extraordinary database she has assembled at the Amendments Project, Lepore recounts centuries of attempts, mostly by ordinary Americans, to realize the promise of the Constitution. Yet nearly all those efforts have failed. Although nearly twelve thousand amendments have been introduced in Congress since 1789, and thousands more have been proposed outside its doors, only twenty-seven have ever been ratified. More troubling, the Constitution has not been meaningfully amended since 1971. Without recourse to amendment, she argues, the risk of political violence rises. So does the risk of constitutional change by presidential or judicial fiat. Challenging both the Supreme Court's monopoly on constitutional interpretation and the flawed theory of "originalism," Lepore contends in this "gripping and unfamiliar story of our own past" that the philosophy of amendment is foundational to American constitutionalism. The framers never intended for the Constitution to be preserved, like a butterfly, under glass, Lepore argues, but expected that future generations would be forever tinkering with it, hoping to mend America by amending its Constitution through an orderly deliberative and democratic process. Lepore's remarkable history seeks, too, to rekindle a sense of constitutional possibility. Congressman Jamie Raskin writes that Lepore "has thrown us a lifeline, a way of seeing the Constitution neither as an authoritarian straitjacket nor a foolproof magic amulet but as the arena of fierce, logical, passionate, and often deadly struggle for a more perfect union." At a time when the Constitution's vulnerability is all too evident, and the risk of political violence all too real, We the People, with its shimmering prose and pioneering research, hints at the prospects for a better constitutional future, an amended America." -- Provided by the publisher.
520			_aFrom the best-selling author of "These Truths" comes "We the People," a stunning new history of the U.S. Constitution, for a troubling new era.
610	1	0	_aUnited States. _tConstitution.
650		0	_aConstitutions _zUnited States.
650		0	_aConstitutional history _zUnited States.
650		0	_aConstitutional amendments _zUnited States.
650		0	_aConstitutional amendments _zUnited States _xRatification.
650		0	_aDemocracy _zUnited States.
651		0	_aUnited States _xPolitics and government.
655		7	_aIllustrated works. _2lcgft
655		7	_aInformational works. _2lcgft
942			_2ddc _cBKTMP
949			_a973 LEPORE _wDEWEY _i0000191580109 _hKC-ABN-OT _p$39.99 _2GRANT _oPurchased with funds from People People People grant.
999			_c367 _d367