Overview

• Published in mid-September, the book is earning praise from the Los Angeles Times and BookPage for being comprehensive yet accessible to readers without legal training.
• Lepore centers the amendment mechanism in Article V, noting its high thresholds—two‑thirds of Congress to propose and three‑fourths of states to ratify—and the resulting rarity of change.
• She contends the Constitution has not been meaningfully amended since 1971, with courts and politics carrying much of the load for constitutional change.
• The narrative traces a shift from the Warren Court’s living‑constitution approach to the rise of originalism under figures like Antonin Scalia, casting judicial rulings as de facto amendments.
• Mixing well‑known and overlooked actors, the book shows how movements and individuals—from James Madison and Thurgood Marshall to Francis Lieber, Vine Deloria, Birch Bayh, Patsy Takemoto Mink, Phyllis Schlafly, and David Mays—have pushed or blocked change.