We The People: A History of the US Constitution (Chicago Campus)




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ClassGraphic We the People: A History of the US Constitution isn’t just another dry text on the American Constitution.  Best-selling author Jill Lepore, Harvard Professor of History and Law, introduces her 14th book with a quote from Bugs Bunny to Daffy Duck: “It was intended to be amended!”  But after centuries of attempts, Lepore believes that Americans have failed to realize the promise of the Constitution and its founding purposes: “One was to prevent change, and the other was to allow for change without violence.”  Twelve thousand amendments have been introduced in Congress since 1789, and thousands more have been proposed outside—but only 27 have ever been ratified. Most dangerous is that our Constitution has not been meaningly amended since 1971. Without recourse to amendment, Lepore argues, the risk of political violence rises, as it is doing today. Published on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of our Nation’s founding, We the People (Liverwright Publishing, 2025) tells a gripping and unfamiliar story of our own past, a story that will destroy your complacency about the promise of our Constitution. Join us and share our discussions of this miracle of American Democracy. 
 

Class Details

14 Session(s)
Weekly - Wed

Location
Wieboldt Hall

Instructor
Multiple

Tuition: 

$0.00

Email olli@northwestern.edu for more information. Send to Friend »

Schedule Information

Date(s) Class Days Times Location Instructor(s)
3/4/2026 - 6/3/2026 Weekly - Wed 01:15 PM - 03:15 PM Chicago, Wieboldt Hall  Map Rosemary O'Shea  ; Carol Dietz  ; Gail Bartlett 

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