The Constitution opens with a single sentence of about fifty words, often memorized and just as often skimmed past. Read slowly, phrase by phrase, the Preamble turns out to be one of the most useful paragraphs in American civic life: a statement of who is acting, what the union is for, and who all of it is ultimately for.

Field Notes on the Republic was written and read by Michael Fowler. It was produced for Quorum (Supply Co.), an American civic purveyor. Music is "When Johnny Comes Marching Home," performed by the U.S. Military Academy Band, West Point.

Between June 13 and June 30, 1971, the country compressed a fundamental argument about the freedom of the press into fifteen days. This is the story of those days, told as they happened, from the first New York Times installment to a Supreme Court that interrupted its own recess to rule. A companion to the prior-restraint essay, told as narrative.

Field Notes on the Republic was written and read by Michael Fowler. It was produced for Quorum (Supply Co.), an American civic purveyor. Music is "When Johnny Comes Marching Home," performed by the U.S. Military Academy Band, West Point.

Americans vote on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November, an oddly precise formula, and every piece of it was a deliberate answer to the conditions of 1845. This is an essay about the day itself: why November, why Tuesday, why the strange wrinkle, and why a date built to make voting easy for a rural nation now often makes it harder.

Field Notes on the Republic was written and read by Michael Fowler. It was produced for Quorum (Supply Co.), an American civic purveyor. Music is "When Johnny Comes Marching Home," performed by the U.S. Military Academy Band, West Point.