In this book review, the author analyzes Akhil Reed Amar’s The Words That Made Us: America’s Constitutional Conversation, 1760-1840. Specifically, the author focuses on Amar’s central thesis—that the fundamental reason behind the US Constitution was national security—and how that should affect our reading of the Constitution today.
The author concludes that Amar’s book is noteworthy both in its panoramic coverage of the time period before and after the drafting and ratification of the Constitution, and in its interdisciplinary character, connecting the fields of history and law.
By the end, the author finds that Amar’s book recenters the debate around history and the original meaning of the Constitution and encourages its readers to rethink their understanding of the Constitution’s underlying purpose.