We the People
A History of the US Constitution
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We the People
Narrated by:
Jill Lepore
Buy Now for £16.99
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Narrated by:
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Jill Lepore
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By:
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Jill Lepore
About this listen
A THE ECONOMIST, HISTORY TODAY, NEW YORK TIMES, NEW YORKER AND WASHINGTON POST BOOK OF THE YEAR
ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2025
LONGLISTED FOR THE 2025 ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN NONFICTION
On the 250th anniversary of America's founding - a landmark history of the US Constitution for a troubling new era.
The US Constitution is among the oldest constitutions in the world - and one of the most difficult to amend. Although nearly twelve thousand amendments have been proposed since 1789, only twenty-seven have ever been ratified. Tellingly, the Constitution has not been meaningfully amended since 1971. Without amendment, the risk of political violence rises. So does the risk of constitutional change by presidential power.
Leading Harvard historian Jill Lepore captures the stories of generations of ordinary people who have attempted everything from abolishing the Electoral College to guaranteeing environmental rights, hoping to mend their nation. Recounting the history of America through centuries of efforts to realize the promise of the Constitution, we witness how nearly all those bids have failed.
We the People is the sweeping account of a struggle, arguing that the Constitution was never intended to be preserved, but was expected to be gradually altered. At a time when the risk of political violence is all too real, it hints at the prospects for a better, amended America.©2025 Jill Lepore
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Critic reviews
It is impossible to imagine a more instructive text on a more timely subject by a more accomplished historian (Timothy Snyder)
An arresting chronicle of Americans striving - if sometimes failing - to remake their republic (The Economist)
We the People contains compelling accounts of the constitutional convention . . . As ever, Lepore writes with literary flair, offering striking character studies, often of Americans who fought for change but are now largely forgotten (Guardian)
In her characteristically lively history of the US Constitution, Lepore argues that the document's capacity for amendment was not only central to the founders' political thinking but essential to its ratification . . . Lepore's passionate denunciation of this theory of constitutional interpretation paints it as one of the "stranger paradoxes" of American constitutional history (Foreign Affairs)
Startling and innovative . . . A vivid portrait of mostly unfamiliar voices of constitutional demurral from this archive and beyond . . . Left hanging in the air at the end of this rewarding book is a dark question: At what cost have we abandoned amendment? (New York Times Book Review)
We the People is most illuminating when it unearths long-ignored but prescient provisions that sprang from groups excluded from the body politic . . . a compelling case for the need to institute constitutional reforms and steer away from a system heavily reliant on the actions of a hyper-politicized Supreme Court (Washington Post)
Lepore's sweeping new history of efforts to amend the constitution is so relevant . . . thoughtful and engaging (Irish Times)
A gifted storyteller (TLS)
Traces the history of constitutional amendment and the significance of the constitutional tradition to the American state (History Today, Books of the Year)
Offers an arresting chronicle of Americans striving - if sometimes failing - to remake their republic (The Economist, Books of the Year)
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