The Constitution Today, Akhil Reed Amar
The Constitution Today, Akhil Reed Amar
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The Constitution Today
Timeless Lessons for the Issues of Our Era

Author: Akhil Reed Amar

Narrator: Mike Chamberlain

Unabridged: 19 hr 41 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 09/13/2016

Categories: Nonfiction, History, Law


Synopsis

When the stories that lead our daily news involve momentous constitutional questions, present-minded journalists and busy citizens cannot always see the stakes clearly. In The Constitution Today, Akhil Reed Amar, America's preeminent constitutional scholar, considers the biggest and most bitterly contested debates of the last two decades—from gun control to gay marriage, affirmative action to criminal procedure, presidential dynasties to Congressional dysfunction, Bill Clinton's impeachment to Obamacare. He shows how the Constitution's text, history, and structure are a crucial repository of collective wisdom, providing specific rules and grand themes relevant to every organ of the American body politic.

Leading listeners through the particular constitutional questions at stake in each episode while outlining his abiding views regarding the Constitution's letter, its spirit, and the direction constitutional law must go, Amar offers an essential guide for anyone seeking to understand America's Constitution and its relevance today.

About Akhil Reed Amar

Akhil Reed Amar is the Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale University. The author of several books, including America's Unwritten Constitution, and winner of the Silver Gavel Award from the American Bar Association, Akhil lives in Woodbridge, Connecticut.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Socraticgadfly on November 14, 2016

How Amar got to be a constitutional law prof at Yale writing dreck like he does, I don't know. This book is just the latest example, starting from the header. Only dyed-in-the-wool originalists would talk about "timeless lessons" from the Constitution with a straight face and no nuance. There are plen......more

Goodreads review by Laura on December 30, 2016

This was one of my slowest reads of the year -- not because it wasn't interesting or compelling, but because it really made me stop to pause, to reflect, to ponder, and sometimes to look up more information. I picked it up because I have substantial concerns about where we are as a country and felt......more

Goodreads review by Ed on October 25, 2017

Amar is an interesting fellow. He is both more or less an originalist, and also politically liberal. (Yes, that is possible!) Well worth a read by anybody interested in getting interesting ideas and a different viewpoint on constitutional questions.......more

Goodreads review by David on June 26, 2017

Amar has an interesting takes on Constitutional issues as a liberal originalist. However, I thought that on some of the points we disagree on, he was being too simplistic in his thinking—though by no means all of them. This was a thought provoking book even if I mostly plodded through it without muc......more

Goodreads review by Bradley on December 27, 2016

Whether or not you agree with Amar's take on the issues, his analysis is thought-provoking and thoroughly researched. His occasional attempts at humor come across as an Ivy League scholar giving you a wink and a nudge. Which is not particularly funny, but it's a pretty spot on authorial voice.......more