Over at History Now, Eric Foner has written a nice piece on social history and the Reconstruction Amendments. The piece is not as in-depth as much of his work is on the subject, but it’s a concise explanation of how the U.S. Constitution and its amendments have a rich social and cultural history surrounding them.
I’ve been thinking about doing a project on the ways in which Americans have viewed the Constitution as a symbolic construct instead of a written document explaining the organization and powers of government in the United States. It seems that people have attributed things to the Constituiton that are not contained in them, and invoke the document as a symbol in its entiriety. Moreover, most Americans seem to attribute broad ideological constructs to the Constitution instead of debating the specific contents within the document. Take Amardeep Singh’s observations about a recent newspaper article, for example. Americans also invoke catch-phrases like “freedom of speech” or “freedom of religion” frequently without really studying the Constitution and the social/cultural history behind its development. Foner’s piece advocates, though not to the degree that I suggest here, that people look more closely at the history behind the document.