{"product_id":"the-constitutional-bind-aziz-rana-9780226350721","title":"The Constitutional Bind: How Americans Came to Idolize a Document That Fails Them","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn eye-opening account of how Americans came to revere the Constitution and what this reverence has meant domestically and around the world.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Some Americans today worry that the Federal Constitution is ill-equipped to respond to mounting democratic threats and may even exacerbate the worst features of American politics. Yet for as long as anyone can remember, the Constitution has occupied a quasi-mythical status in American political culture, which ties ideals of liberty and equality to assumptions about the inherent goodness of the text's design. \u003ci\u003eThe Constitutional Bind\u003c\/i\u003e explores how a flawed document came to be so glorified and how this has impacted American life. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e In a pathbreaking retelling of the American experience, Aziz Rana shows that today's reverential constitutional culture is a distinctively twentieth-century phenomenon. Rana connects this widespread idolization to another relatively recent development: the rise of US global dominance. Ultimately, such veneration has had far-reaching consequences: despite offering a unifying language of reform, it has also unleashed an interventionist national security state abroad while undermining the possibility of deeper change at home. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Revealing how the current constitutional order was forged over the twentieth century, \u003ci\u003eThe Constitutional Bind\u003c\/i\u003e also sheds light on an array of movement activists--in Black, Indigenous, feminist, labor, and immigrant politics--who struggled to imagine different constitutional horizons. As time passed, these voices of opposition were excised from memory. Today, they offer essential insights. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Aziz Rana\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 022635072X\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780226350721\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Chicago Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 04\/16\/2024\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 824\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 2.70lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.40h x 6.20w x 1.90d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e 03\/01\/2024 pg. 116\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e 03\/15\/2024","brand":"Aziz Rana","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":44860077736191,"sku":"9780226350721","price":45.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_ec6116f5-55f5-4b3c-a387-1ffc3c3659c0.jpg?v=1709135345","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-constitutional-bind-aziz-rana-9780226350721","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}