To be published on the 250th anniversary year of the American Revolution, We the People is the most original history of the US Constitution in over a century.

THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

On the 250th anniversary of America's founding - a landmark history of the US Constitution for a troubling new era.

The US Constitution is among the oldest constitutions in the world - and one of the most difficult to amend. Although nearly twelve thousand amendments have been proposed since 1789, only twenty-seven have ever been ratified. Tellingly, the Constitution has not been meaningfully amended since 1971. Without amendment, the risk of political violence rises. So does the risk of constitutional change by presidential power.

Leading Harvard historian Jill Lepore captures the stories of generations of ordinary people who have attempted everything from abolishing the Electoral College to guaranteeing environmental rights, hoping to mend their nation. Recounting the history of America through centuries of efforts to realize the promise of the Constitution, we witness how nearly all those bids have failed.

We the People is the sweeping account of a struggle, arguing that the Constitution was never intended to be preserved, but was expected to be gradually altered. At a time when the risk of political violence is all too real, it hints at the prospects for a better, amended America.

Details

ISBN13: 9781399827058
Format: Paperback / softback
Number of Pages: 720
Edition:
Publication Date: 16 Sep 2025
Publisher: John Murray Press
Publication City, Country: United Kingdom
Dimensions (cm): 20.2(H)x13.2(L)x2.4(W)918
Weight (gm): 918

Author Biography

Jill Lepore is the David Woods Kemper '41 Professor of American History at Harvard University, where she teaches classes in evidence, historical methods, the humanities, and American political history. She is the author of The Name of War: King Philip's War and the Origins of American Identity (winner of the Bancroft Prize), New York Burning: Liberty, Slavery and Conspiracy in Eighteenth-Century Manhattan (a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize), The Secret History of Wonder Woman (winner of the American History Book Prize), If Then (longlisted for the National Book Award) and many other titles. She is a staff writer at the New Yorker, host of the podcast The Last Archive, and was the winner of the Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought in 2021.

Reviews

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