Ezra's Bookshelf

The Constitutional Bind

by Aziz Rana · 818 pages · ~15 hrs

Law & JusticeHistoryPolitics & Government

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Aziz Rana, a legal scholar, offers a revisionist history of American constitutional thought. He connects the spread of constitutional veneration—treating the Constitution as sacred and essentially unchangeable—to the rise of American global power after World War II. As the United States positioned itself as leader of the 'free world,' the Constitution became proof of American exceptionalism. Rana shows how this reverence marginalized earlier traditions of constitutional skepticism. Abolitionists, labor radicals, socialists, and civil rights activists had all criticized the Constitution's limitations and imagined more democratic alternatives. Rana recovers these dissenting voices, showing that fundamental constitutional criticism has deep American roots. The book traces how Cold War imperatives, combined with Supreme Court decisions that seemed to vindicate constitutional faith, consolidated consensus around constitutional sanctity. Rana argues that this consensus constrains political imagination today, making certain reforms seem impossible even when supported by majorities. For readers interested in constitutional law, American political development, or possibilities for democratic reform, this book provides historical perspective on assumptions often taken for granted.

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