May be [Lepore's] best yet, a capacious work that lands at the right moment, like a life buoy, as our ship of state takes on water. She’s not here to rearrange deck chairs on the Titanic; she’s here to convey — in vigorous, crystal-clear sentences — what we’re losing, and why ... Astute ... Lepore senses peril but also a whiff of democratic revival. Asymmetries lie at the foundation of our government; as this gifted scholar reminds us, it’s our duty to tend to them.
Each of her book’s 13 chapters offers a vivid portrait of mostly unfamiliar voices of constitutional demurral from this archive and beyond ... Persuasively contends that we still can learn from the long trail of would-be amenders and constitutionalists. She rightly deepens the bench of con law heroes to include less successful struggles that are nevertheless illuminating ... [A] rewarding book.
Convincing ... Most illuminating when it unearths long-ignored but prescient provisions that sprang from groups excluded from the body politic ... While Lepore has a tendency to meander into topics that, depending on a reader’s taste, can serve as either illuminating avenues of exploration or distracting tangents, she remains on firm ground when calling for a transformation of the Constitution into a dynamic force for change ... Understates the Constitution’s successful track record, especially compared with its peers across the globe ... Compelling.
Ambitious ... Builds on the Amendments Project, a huge digital collection of every significant proposal to revise the US Constitution ... Lepore warns that her book is neither 'a treatise on constitutional law' nor 'a compendium of Supreme Court decisions' ... But no such warning can excuse the omission of crucial parts of the written Constitution itself.
Sweeping ... So relevant ... Those who recognise the constitution’s defects can take heart from Lepore’s history, which shows that it has been changed in the past and that even when such efforts have failed they have significantly enhanced democratic debate.
Sweeping, urgent ... Lepore highlights periods in American history when amending the Constitution was an important and accessible tool, and periods when amending faced great obstacles.
Lepore urges the public and legislators to seriously take up the cause of amendment once again. It’s a galvanizing and paradigm-shifting take on America’s slow descent into plutocracy.
