2020 Readings

The "2020 Readings" Section provides sources to complement your readings from The Constitution in 2020. The Constitution2020.org team has seeded this page with some works that we think you'll find useful and enjoyable, but we'd like your help -- think of 2020 Readings as a collaborative project to build a bibliography for the new generation of American progressives. We're construing "readings" very broadly -- we're interested in books, articles, policy papers, videos, etc. -- that grapple with themes, ideas, and experiences in ways that will be instructive for the future of progressivism. Have something you'd like to see on this page? Fill out our form and let us know about it.

Citizenship and Community

Secondary material - books

Jedediah Purdy, BEING AMERICA: LIBERTY, COMMERCE, AND VIOLENCE IN AN AMERICAN WORLD (Random House, 2003)   [Notes]

Democracy and Civil Liberties

Secondary material - books

Jedediah Purdy, BEING AMERICA: LIBERTY, COMMERCE, AND VIOLENCE IN AN AMERICAN WORLD (Random House, 2003)   [Notes]
Edward Lazarus, CLOSED CHAMBERS: THE RISE, FALL, AND FUTURE OF THE MODERN SUPREME COURT (Penguin, 2005)   [Notes]
David Feige, INDEFENSIBLE: ONE LAWYER'S JOURNEY INTO THE INFERNO OF AMERICAN JUSTICE (Little, Brown & Co., 2006)   [Notes]
Yochai Benkler, THE WEALTH OF NETWORKS: HOW SOCIAL PRODUCTION TRANSFORMS MARKETS AND FREEDOM (Yale University Press, 2007)   [Notes]

Interpreting Our Constitution

Secondary material - books

Louis Menand, THE METAPHYSICAL CLUB: A STORY OF IDEAS IN AMERICA (Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 2002)   [Notes]
Edward Lazarus, CLOSED CHAMBERS: THE RISE, FALL, AND FUTURE OF THE MODERN SUPREME COURT (Penguin, 2005)   [Notes]
Laurence Tribe, THE INVISIBLE CONSTITUTION (Oxford University Press, 2008)   [Notes]

Protecting Religious Diversity

Secondary material - books

Terry Eagleton, REASON, FAITH, AND REVOLUTION: REFLECTIONS ON THE GOD DEBATE (Yale University Press, 2009)   [Notes]

Secondary material - works in journals

William Galston, “Two Concepts of Liberalism,” 105 ETHICS 516 – 34 (1995)   [Notes]

Social Rights and Legislative Constitutionalism

Secondary material - books

Studs Terkel, WORKING: PEOPLE TALK ABOUT WHAT THEY DO ALL DAY AND HOW THEY FEEL ABOUT WHAT THEY DO (1997)   [Notes]
Yochai Benkler, THE WEALTH OF NETWORKS: HOW SOCIAL PRODUCTION TRANSFORMS MARKETS AND FREEDOM (Yale University Press, 2007)   [Notes]

Secondary material - works in journals

Susan H. Bitensky, “Theoretical Foundations for a Right to Education Under the U.S. Constitution: A Beginning to the End of the National Education Crisis,” 86 NW. U. L. REV. 550 (1992)   [Notes]
The Forbath-Michelman Debate (1999 - 2004)   [Notes]

State, Nation, World

Secondary material - books

Amy Chua, WORLD ON FIRE: HOW EXPORTING FREE MARKET DEMOCRACY BREEDS GLOBAL HATRED AND INSTABILITY (Anchor Books, 2003)   [Notes]
Jedediah Purdy, BEING AMERICA: LIBERTY, COMMERCE, AND VIOLENCE IN AN AMERICAN WORLD (Random House, 2003)   [Notes]
Yochai Benkler, THE WEALTH OF NETWORKS: HOW SOCIAL PRODUCTION TRANSFORMS MARKETS AND FREEDOM (Yale University Press, 2007)   [Notes]

The Constitution in 2020 is a companion website to The Constitution in 2020 (Oxford University Press 2009).  Here you will find ten sample chapters from the book, essays about the future of the U.S. Constitution, discussions of current constitutional issues, a bibliography and resources for further study.