An evening with author Cynthia Levinson and constitutional lawyer Sanford Levinson
The Gordon School will host author Cynthia Levinson and constitutional lawyer Sanford
Levinson of the Harvard Law School for a conversation about their book, Fault Lines in
the Constitution.
The book, written for middle-school-aged students, is an excellent primer for all ages
about America's founding document and how it has shaped U.S. history. It takes readers
back to the creation of the historic document and discusses how contemporary
problems were first introduced, and presents possible solutions to timely topics like the
Electoral College, gerrymandering, and even the Senate.
This event is part of the schoolwide conversation on democracy and dissent that is
happening this year, and connects directly to humanities and social studies curricula
unfolding in several grades.
This event is free and open to parents, caregivers, interested students, and the general
public.
You would think that a book about the US Constitution would not need to be updated on a biweekly
basis. The Constitution has been amended only twenty-seven times, and the first ten amendments were
added all at once back in 1791. But unlike other books on the subject, Fault Lines in the Constitution
focuses on the political fallout in our times from the decisions made in 1787. And things keep falling out.
It turns out that when you connect the dots from a long-established, little-changed document to the
repercussions it’s caused, the document can remain static while the repercussions continue to
reverberate. And so can a book that addresses both of them.
-more-
Cynthia Levinson holds degrees from Wellesley College and Harvard University and also attended the
Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs. A former teacher and educational policy consultant and
researcher, she is the author of the award-winning and critically-acclaimed We’ve Got a Job: The 1963
Birmingham Children’s March as well as Watch Out for Flying Kids!. She has also published articles in
Appleseeds, Calliope, Cobblestone, Dig, Faces, and Odyssey. For more information, visit here.
Sanford Levinson is an American legal scholar, a professor in the Law School and the Department of
Government at the University of Texas, and a frequent visiting professor at Harvard Law School. He
holds degrees from Duke, Stanford, and Harvard universities and is the author of several adult books on
the Constitution, including Constitutional Faith (1988, 2d ed. 2011); Our Undemocratic Constitution
(2006); and Framed: America’s 51 Constitutions and the Crisis of Governance (2012); and, most recently,
An Argument Open to All: Reading The Federalist in the 21st Century (2015).
Event Links
Tickets: https://go.evvnt.com/2742138-0
Website: https://go.evvnt.com/2742138-2
