This class will offer a distinctive and timely look at our founding document with emphasis on how it has evolved over the last 239 years. It will provide a perspective of today's polarized government by offering a view of the Constitution not as a fixed, worshiped artifact, but as a dynamic arena of "fierce, logical, passionate...struggle for a more perfect union." A significant focus of this course will be on "We the people," the opening words of the Preamble to the Constitution, and how the understanding of who is included within that term has changed over time. The title of this SDG comes from our core book We the People: a History of the U.S. Constitution, by Jill Lepore, the noted Harvard University history professor and staff writer for The New Yorker. We will also consider changes to the Constitution that may occur during the time of this SDG as we review cases recently decided or now pending before the Supreme Court involving significant constitutional issues.
Week 1 Introduction, The Constitution of a Clock
Week 2 All Men Would be Tyrants
Week 3 Every Gentleman May Propose Amendments
Week 4 Let Us Examine the Word White
Week 5 The Whole Rebellion Is Beyond the Constitution
Week 6 No Amendment is Necessary
Week 7 We Began This Quilt
Week 8 Mr. Constitution
Week 9 Miss Bolsheviki
Week 10 The Lost amendment
Week 11 The Subcommitee on Constitutional Amendments
Week 12 A Bill of Rights for Women
Week 13 The Constitution is Dead!
Week 14 The Future of Constitutionalism
We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution by Jill Lepore