With Liberty and Justice for All?: The Constitution in the Classroom

With Liberty and Justice for All?: The Constitution in the Classroom is designed to help teachers and students generate analysis and debate in our nation's classrooms about an aspect of US history that has produced intense disagreements about rights and wrongs: constitutional history. For more than two centuries, Americans have argued about what the US Constitution permits or requires (or not), and what values and ideals it enshrines (or not)—indeed, who is to be included (or not) in the very definition of "We the People."

This book provides abundant resources to explore key moments of debate about the Constitution and its meaning, focusing on fundamental questions of citizenship and rights. It analyzes American history through the use and misuse of the Constitution over time, from early disputes about liberty and slavery to more recent quarrels over equality and dignity. With a foreword by Ruth Bader Ginsburg, this book's succinct and probing essays by prize-winning historians—including Linda Greenhouse, Mary Sarah Bilder, Annette Gordon-Reed, Eric Foner, Sam Erman, Julie Suk, Laura Kalman, and Melissa Murray—provide the core of the book. Their topics encompass woman suffrage, school desegregation, Japanese internment, McCarthyism, all dramatic turning points in American history. Carefully selected and annotated primary sources and focused discussion questions provide teachers with the tools to bring constitutional history into the classroom with ease.

As this book amply demonstrates, United States history is constitutional history. A companion website provides additional resources for teachers.