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Summary:

"Americans today are increasingly uneasy about the democratic weaknesses of their federal Constitution. But for most of living memory that very Constitution has been idealized as near perfect. How could it be that this flawed system came to enjoy such intense veneration? In a striking reinterpretation of the American constitutional past, Aziz Rana connects the spread of a distinctive twentieth century American relationship to its founding document to another development rarely treated alongside it: the rise of the U.S. to global dominance. In the process, he highlights the role of constitutional veneration in shaping the terms of American power abroad, with ultimately transformative effects at home for narratives of nation and ideas of reform. In the process, Rana also explores the remarkably diverse array of movement activists-in Black, Indigenous, feminist, labor, and immigrant politics-that struggled to imagine a very different constitutional horizon, one grounded in equal and effective freedom for all and able to overcome the basic limitations of the consolidating legal-political system. These voices of opposition, including to the Constitution itself, have overwhelmingly been excised from constitutional memory. And yet they offer essential insights for making sense of our present difficulties, in which Americans find themselves bereft of the constitutional sureties that have long shaped collective life"-- [Provided by the publisher]

Table of Contents:

• Preface: Three centennials
• The American constitutional romance
• Disagreement and experimentation in the Gilded Age, 1887-1917. Settler crisis and constitutional uncertainty ; Class narratives and the high tide of "constitution tinkering" ; The Socialist constitutional alternative ; Developing universalist empire in the Philippines
• The spread of a new constitutional citizenship, 1917-1945. World War I, the security state, and constitutional loyalty ; Inclusion and exclusion in interwar Americanism ; Transformation and preservation in the New Deal ; The good war and constitution worship
• Consolidating the American model, 1945-1965. Launching the American century ; Red scare constitutionalism ; Cold War reform and the reframing of American identity ; Constitutional myths and the victory of the court
• Alternative paths and constitutional erasure, 1965-1987. Left resurgence and the decolonial project ; The rise of originalist America
• Conclusion: Constitutional accounting.

Author/Creator:

Rana, Aziz , author

Languages:

English

Language Notes:

Item content: English

Main Work:

The constitutional bind: how Americans came to idolize a document that fails them [by Rana, A.]

Other Related Resources:

Print version: The Constitutional Bind [by Rana, A.] (Chicago : University of Chicago Press,c2024 — ISBN 9780226350721)

Subjects:

Constitutional history — United States

Democracy — United States — History — 20th century

Political culture — United States — History — 20th century

Social movements — United States — History — 20th century

United States — Politics and government — 20th century

1900-1999

Democracy

Political culture

Social movements

Politics and government

Constitutional history

United States

Genres:

History

General Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.
Description based on: Online resource; title from title screen (viewed May 10, 2024).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xii, 805 pages)

Digital Characteristics:

text file

Call Numbers:

KF4541 .R363 2024eb

ISBNs:

9780226350868 (electronic book)
022635086X (electronic book)
9780226350721 (print) [Invalid]
022635072X (print) [Invalid]

OCLC Numbers:

1419871458