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Since 1787, the United States Constitution has aimed to hold together a divided political community around a set of basic agreements. Some now call it the oldest constitution in the world still in effect today; others insist that though the textual template has remained in many respects the same, we have actually had two or three, or maybe even four constitutional orders over time. Either way, its history has been one of tumult, controversy, and sometimes mass violence from the very start. This course takes up the social and political history of the document and the practices that have arisen around it, from the founding era to the 1937 transformation that now hangs in the balance. Readings and lectures draw on multiple disciplinary approaches to history and law and foreground competing perspectives on the past.

COURSE CONTENT

• Twelve lectures
• Primary source readings to complement the lectures
• A certificate of completion for 15 hours of professional development credit

Readings: The suggested readings for each session will be listed in the “Resources” link on the course site. You are not required to read or purchase any print materials. The quizzes are based on the lectures.

Course Access: After your purchase, you may access your course by signing into the Gilder Lehrman website and clicking on the My Courses link, which can be found under My Account in the navigation menu.

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LEAD SCHOLAR: John Fabian Witt

John Fabian Witt is the Allen H. Duffy Class of 1960 Professor of Law and a professor of history at Yale University. He holds a JD and a PhD in History from Yale. He served as a law clerk to Judge Pierre N. Leval on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, taught for a decade at Columbia Law School, and has visited at Harvard and the University of Texas at Austin.