In our first conversation with historian Jill Lepore, author of We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution, we talked about what happened to the U.S. Constitution: A living document meant to change with the times is now frozen in time, cutting off the possibility of progress. Today, we talked about how the Constitution’s original faults — the leaving out of women, Native Americans, and Black people; the “ticking time bomb” of the electoral college — led to the current crisis, and how the Supreme Court, which has more power than it has ever had, on the pretext of an “originalism” that ignores the historical repairs to those faults — has narrowed the Constitution and the rights of Americans as it has accrued unprecedented power.
We also addressed Book Club members’ questions about how the Left’s “narcissism of the present” and the upheavals on university campuses (going back to the 1990s) paved the way for right-wing illiberalism, the meaning of Donald Trump’s shitposting, whether Americans need to amend themselves to tell a new story of change that’s not technological but moral, and what it means to be a historian and teacher of history in these times.
It’s clear, Lepore told us, that since January 6, 2021, our country has increasingly “gone off the map.” Are we amendable? Can it all be fixed? It’s up to future historians to make that call, but tune in today to hear from one of our most perceptive analysts about the prospects of the American experiment.
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We’ll post questions — our discussion guide — every Sunday, and every other Wednesday we’ll meet for a discussion with the Club or a visit from an author or other special guest. Look out for posts with further details. We’ll also host chat threads to get your insight on key questions in advance of our meetings.
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