We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution

We the People is a history of the United States Constitution told through the efforts to change it. Jill Lepore argues that amendment is central to American constitutionalism: the framers expected later generations to keep revising the document, yet it has become one of the oldest constitutions in the world and one of the hardest to amend. The book follows generations of Americans who tried to alter it, from campaigns to abolish the Electoral College to proposals guaranteeing environmental rights. Lepore also challenges originalism and the Supreme Court’s claim to be the sole interpreter of the Constitution.