We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution

On December 3, 2025, Jill Lepore lectured at the Clough Center on her book, We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution. She emphasized the importance of the amendment process in shaping American history, asserting that the Constitution evolves through public engagement, highlighting transformative amendments like the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth.

2–3 minutes

On December 3, 2025, the Clough Center was pleased to host Jill Lepore, who delivered a lecture on her recently published book, We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution (Liveright Publishing, 2025). A New York Times bestseller, We the People offers a profound history of the amendment process. Jill Lepore is the David Woods Kemper ’41 Professor of American History at Harvard University and Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. She is also a staff writer at The New Yorker.

Jill Lepore, The Clough Center

Jill Lepore began her lecture with a question about why the history of the Constitution matters and how it is inextricably linked to the history of the American people as a nation. How do Americans define their relationship with the Constitution? Lepore explained how the amendment process has played out in shaping the history of the American people. The Constitution is not simply a document we inherited from the Founding Fathers, she argued; instead, it is sustained by, and has evolved with, the ongoing approval of the people. Thus, “when James Madison was asked to draft the first set of amendments to the Constitution, the very first amendment that he intended to include was the one that insisted upon people’s right to amend the Constitution.”

For Madison, Lepore argued, the most important element of a written constitution was the people’s ability to revise it. Lepore suggested that the amendment process is the foundational philosophy of a constitution. It is how the people would own the Constitution.

Lepore also pointed out that the authors of the Constitution wanted the amendment process to be difficult, but they did not want it to be impossible. After Lepore contextualized the formation of the Constitution, she elaborated on significant moments that led to the amendments, which shaped American history. For instance, the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery, was a transformative point, and it was followed by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, known as the Reconstruction Amendments, which were ratified after the Civil War.

By exploring specific moments of constitutional history in the US, Lepore showed how the Constitution’s amendment process is central to democratic resilience. Lepore concluded her lecture by responding to questions from the audience, which led to an engaging conversation.

The full video of the lecture is available on the Clough Center’s YouTube Channel.