We the People

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
A pulsating, at times astonishing journey through Americans' never-ending efforts to form a more perfect union. We the People is essential reading for anyone who cares about self-government under the Constitution -- Jamal Greene, Dwight Professor of Law, Columbia Law School, and author of HOW RIGHTS WENT WRONG
An extraordinary and inspiring achievement. Lepore offers a whole new understanding of constitutional change. It's a triumph of the head and the heart -- Cass R. Sunstein, Robert Walmsley University Professor, Harvard Law School, and author of HOW TO INTERPRET THE CONSTITUTION
Lepore's lyrical journey through the history of the Constitution brings its eminently amendable state to life in vivid and inspiring detail and delivers it to us, the living, for further repairs and improvements -- Danielle Allen, James Bryant Conant University Professor, Harvard, and author of JUSTICE BY MEANS OF DEMOCRACY
In this remarkably engaging and deeply researched work, one of America's most important living historians illuminates the most vital quality of our Constitution: its capacity for renewal -- Pete Buttigieg, former United States Secretary of Transportation
Not only a historian with prodigious powers of original research and integrative genius, not only a spellbinding writer with a golden pen, Jill Lepore is a preacher at an open-air American revival meeting: she will tell you a gripping and unfamiliar story of our own past that destroys your complacency and makes you reimagine what is possible for the secular miracle that is America -- Congressman Jamie Raskin, US House of Representatives Judiciary Committee
With the Constitution under daily threat, Lepore's outstanding book makes for urgent reading -- Kirkus Reviews
[A] galvanizing and paradigm-shifting take on America's slow descent into plutocracy -- Publishers Weekly, starred review
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