Jill Lepore On The Constitution

27 snips

Sep 12, 2025

Jill Lepore, a Harvard professor and staff writer at The New Yorker, shares her insights on the U.S. Constitution. She delves into the Constitution's origins, highlighting the influence of Enlightenment thinkers and the complexity of early governance. Lepore discusses intriguing topics like FDR’s court-packing plan, the challenges of voting rights during the Jacksonian era, and the compromises that shaped the franchise. With personal anecdotes, she paints a vivid picture of how history intertwines with identity and the evolution of American democracy.

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ANECDOTE

Roots In A Teaching Family

Jill Lepore grew up in Worcester with both parents as public school teachers which shaped her early life.
Her father taught languages and later became a principal while her mother taught elementary art and also taught Jill in school.

ANECDOTE

Paint Spill And Parental Discipline

Jill recalls being taught by her mother who insisted she call her Mrs. Lepore and once made her walk home covered in orange paint to clean up.
The memory illustrates the personal awkwardness of having a parent as your teacher.

INSIGHT

Why Written Constitutions Emerged

State constitutions were written first because colonial charters vanished when royal governors fled during revolution.
Writing constitutions provided a tangible document citizens could point to when claiming rights against authority.

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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit andrewsullivan.substack.com

Jill is a writer and scholar. She’s a professor of American history at Harvard, a professor of law at Harvard Law, and a staff writer at The New Yorker. She’s also the host of the podcast “X-Man: The Elon Musk Origin Story.” Her many books include These Truths: A History of the United States (which I reviewed for the NYT in 2017) and her new one, We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution — out in a few days; pre-order now.

For two clips of our convo — on FDR’s efforts to bypass the Constitution, and the worst amendment we’ve had — head to our YouTube page.

Other topics: raised by public school teachers near Worcester; dad a WWII vet; her struggles with Catholicism as a teen (and my fundamentalism then); joining ROTC; the origins of the Constitution; the Enlightenment; Locke; Montesquieu; the lame Articles of Confederation; the 1776 declaration; Paine’s Common Sense; Madison; Jefferson; Hamilton; Adams; New England town meetings; state constitutional conventions; little known conventions by women and blacks; the big convention in Philly and its secrecy; the slave trade; the Three-Fifths Clause; amendment provisions; worries over mob rule; the Electoral College; jury duty; property requirements for voting; the Jacksonian Era; Tocqueville; the Civil War; Woodrow Wilson; the direct election of senators; James Montgomery Beck (“Mr Constitution”); FDR’s court-packing plan; Eleanor’s activism; Prohibition and its repeal; the Warren Court; Scalia; executive orders under Trump; and gauging the intent of the Founders.

Browse the Dishcast archive for an episode you might enjoy. Coming up: John Ellis on Trump’s mental health, Michael Wolff on Epstein, Karen Hao on artificial intelligence, Katie Herzog on drinking your way sober, Michel Paradis on Eisenhower, Charles Murray on religion, David Ignatius on the Trump effect globally, and Arthur Brooks on the science of happiness. As always, please send any guest recs, dissents, and other comments to dish@andrewsullivan.com.