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

We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution by Jill Lepore
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a massive book, detailed and covers two and a half centuries. It took me quite a while to read it, months. But I didn’t read this solely, as I could only manage parts at a time. Further in, I was able to read a full chapter in one session, due to the book progressing in time, until almost to today. These later chapters were closer to when I had more information and become more readable at length.

The book begins with a very close look at how the United States Constitution was created. It took many people throughout the colonies, and many discussions. Each state had to ratify the new constitution, and each had their own desires and amendments. Would amendments be able to be added or not was a discussion. Who presented what to the constitutional congress, what their state desired, and all these minute details were discussed in length. It was very much in the weeds.
After the constitution was adopted, then came the discussion about amendments. As the chapters progressed the amendments would arise around social issues, such as in the later era civil rights or women’s rights, etc.

The book perhaps is a bit like a history book for school. All the minute details about the U.S. Constitution and amendments were more than I really wanted to know. Yet, reading section by section the book seemed good enough to keep going, and ended up being quite a reading project for me. And since this year I wanted to spend time reading about the history of the United States, this book did help to fill in a gap of my knowledge.


View all my reviews