The five-week course will include sessions on:
How we got the Constitution of 1787
How we have interpreted the Constitution
How we have amended the Constitution
How we might improve the Constitution
The famous Roman Republic collapsed when its constitution, devised for a small city state, failed to embrace the Mediterranean world empire Rome had become. This led to civil discord, demagoguery, and civil war.
Thomas Jefferson urged us to tear up or revise the U.S. Constitution once every generation, perhaps every nineteen years, to keep pace "with the progress of the human mind," and the experience of the American republic. We have, in fact, only amended the Constitution 27 times, ten right at the start, just 17 times the last 230 years. (The last amendment was ratified in 1992, on an issue of very limited importance).
Together we will explore the making of the Constitution, its ratification, its interpretation, and its current status, but we will brainstorm together, with all this historical background to guide our thoughts and conversation, about ways in which we might form a "more perfect union," if we have the moral courage to address the fundamental problems of American governance.