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In one of the most timely and urgent shows we have ever done, today I speak with law scholar Aziz Rana about his brilliant and bracing article recently published in New Left Review, “Constitutional Collapse.” We talk about how the Trump administration and its enablers are shredding a liberal “compact” which was established in in the 1930s through the Sixties and extending an imperial presidency abroad to an authoritarian one domestically. We talk about the current constitutional crisis, but also about the need for, and manifestations of, a politics which is at once a genuine membership organization and social community. As Aziz Rana powerfully argues, “its aim should be to transform the world people organically experience.” This is exactly the analysis and message so many of us need in these dark times.Aziz Rana is a professor of law at Boston College Law School, where his research and teaching center on American constitutional law and political development. In particular, his work focuses on how shifting notions of race, citizenship, and empire have shaped legal and political identity since the founding. Rana's first book, The Two Faces of American Freedom (Harvard University Press) situates the American experience within the global history of colonialism, examining the intertwined relationship in American constitutional practice between internal accounts of freedom and external projects of power and expansion. His new book, The Constitutional Bind: How Americans Came to Idolize a Document that Fails Them (University of Chicago Press, 2024), explores the modern emergence of constitutional veneration in the twentieth century -- especially against the backdrop of growing American global authority -- and how veneration has influenced the boundaries of popular politics. Aziz Rana has written essays and op-eds for such venues as n+1, The Boston Review, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Dissent, New Labor Forum, Jacobin, The Guardian, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Nation, Jadaliyya, Salon, and The Law and Political Economy Project. He has articles and chapter contributions published or forthcoming with Yale and Oxford University Presses, The University of Chicago Law Review, California Law Review, UCLA Law Review, Texas Law Review, and the Yale Law Journal Forum, among others.
Featuring Aziz Rana on the making of the American project and its legitimation through popular worship of the US Constitution. This episode, the final in a four-part series, traces the great unraveling of the American empire from the 1970s to our present MAGA 2.0 moment. Would you like to know more? Aziz made a bibliography for you: thedigradio.com/newsletter102 Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Buy Enemy Feminisms and I Didn't Come Here to Lie at Haymarketbooks.com
Featuring Aziz Rana on the making of the American project and its legitimation through popular worship of the US Constitution. This episode, the final in a four-part series, traces the great unraveling of the American empire from the 1970s to our present MAGA 2.0 moment. Would you like to know more? Aziz made a bibliography for you: thedigradio.com/newsletter102 Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Buy Enemy Feminisms and I Didn't Come Here to Lie at Haymarketbooks.com
Aziz Rana, author of The Constitutional Bind, describes how the system crafted by the US Constitution led to Donald Trump and has constricted our ability fight him. Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html
Featuring Aziz Rana on the making of the American project and its legitimation through popular worship of the US Constitution. This episode, the third in what is now a four-part series, looks at how black movements responded as the Vietnam War and the limits of formal civil rights victories combined to explode the Cold War's contradictions. Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Buy Reconsidering Reparations at Haymarketbooks.com Subscribe to a year of Jacobin for only $15— a special offer for Dig listeners! bit.ly/digjacobin
Featuring Aziz Rana on the making of the American project and its legitimation through popular worship of the US Constitution. This episode, the third in what is now a four-part series, looks at how black movements responded as the Vietnam War and the limits of formal civil rights victories combined to explode the Cold War's contradictions. Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Buy Reconsidering Reparations at Haymarketbooks.com Subscribe to a year of Jacobin for only $15— a special offer for Dig listeners! bit.ly/digjacobin
Behind the News, 4/24/25 - guest: Aziz Rana on the constitutional order and Trump - Doug Henwood
Aziz Rana, author of The Constitutional Bind, on how the system crafted by the US Constitution, led to Donald Trump and has constricted our ability fight him The post How constitutional fetishism gave us Trump appeared first on KPFA.
Featuring Aziz Rana on the making of the American project and its legitimation through popular worship of the US Constitution. This episode, the second in a three-part series, takes the story from World War I's hyper-nationalist, xenophobic First Red Scare, through the convulsions of the middle decades of the 20th century: the Communist Party USA, the New Deal, World War II, the civil rights movement, the Warren Court, and ultimately the Cold War, when American liberalism, anti-communism, and empire triumphed. Buy Iran in Revolt at Haymarketbooks.com Subscribe to Jacobin in print for $15/yr at bit.ly/digjacobin and Catalyst in print for $20/yr at bit.ly/digcatalyst Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
Featuring Aziz Rana on the making of the American project and its legitimation through popular worship of the US Constitution. This episode, the second in a three-part series, takes the story from World War I's hyper-nationalist, xenophobic First Red Scare, through the convulsions of the middle decades of the 20th century: the Communist Party USA, the New Deal, World War II, the civil rights movement, the Warren Court, and ultimately the Cold War, when American liberalism, anti-communism, and empire triumphed. Buy Iran in Revolt at Haymarketbooks.com Register for the Socialism Conference at Socialismconference.org before April 25th for an early bird discount! Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig
We discuss rethinking the Constitution as a way to reimagine democracy. In addition, we examine the role of constitutionalism in exporting the principles of democracy as the underpinning of American imperialism. Aziz's civic action toolkit recommendations are: Join a union or a party formation or a tenants' association in your community Get involved in shaping the terms institutions that serve as meaningful checks Aziz Rana is professor of law at Boston College and the author of The Constitutional Bind: How Americans Came to Idolize a Document That Fails Them and The Two Faces of American Freedom. Let's connect! Follow Future Hindsight on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/futurehindsightpod/ Discover new ways to #BetheSpark: https://www.futurehindsight.com/spark Follow Mila on X: https://x.com/milaatmos Read The Constitutional Bind: https://bookshop.org/shop/futurehindsight Sponsor: Thank you to Shopify! Sign up for a $1/month trial at shopify.com/hopeful. Early episodes for Patreon supporters: https://patreon.com/futurehindsight Credits: Host: Mila Atmos Guests: Aziz Rana Executive Producer: Mila Atmos Producer: Zack Travis
Featuring Aziz Rana on the making of the American capitalist, imperialist project and its legitimation through popular worship of the US Constitution. This episode, the first in a three-part series, traces the foundation of the American settler empire from the revolutionary generation up to the eve of World War I. Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Buy White City, Black City at Plutobooks.com Subscribe to a year of Jacobin for only $15 — a special offer for Dig listeners! bit.ly/digjacobin The Dig goes deep into politics everywhere, from labor struggles and political economy to imperialism and immigration. Hosted by Daniel Denvir.
Featuring Aziz Rana on the making of the American capitalist, imperialist project and its legitimation through popular worship of the US Constitution. This episode, the first in a three-part series, traces the foundation of the American settler empire from the revolutionary generation up to the eve of World War I. Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Buy White City, Black City at Plutobooks.com Subscribe to a year of Jacobin for only $15— a special offer for Dig listeners! bit.ly/digjacobin
Judith Butler and Aziz Rana join Adam Shatz to discuss Donald Trump's use of executive orders to target birthright citizenship, protest, support of Palestinian rights, academic freedom, constitutionally protected speech and efforts to ensure inclusion on the basis of race, gender and sexual orientation. They consider in particular the content of Executive Order 14168, which ‘restores' the right of the government to decide what sex people are, as well as the wider programme of rights-stripping implied by Trump's agenda.Read Judith's piece here:https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v47/n06/judith-butler/this-is-wrongRead Adam on Columbia University:https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/march/submissionLRB AudioDiscover audiobooks, Close Readings and more from the LRB: https://lrb.me/audiolrbpod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Aziz Rana, J. Donald Monan, S.J., University Professor of Law and Government at Boston College, is back on the program to talk about the 20th and 21st century constitutional order leading to the current crisis under Trump. They delve into the attack on racial liberalism, the balance between the disavowed and embraced aspects of McCarthyism, the theory of the unitary executive, defending and regulating capitalism, the advent of the carceral state, and more. Read Aziz's piece on the matter at New Left Review, “Constitutional Collapse”. Subscribe now for the full episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Trump's Top Aides Dig the Hole Deeper on Signalgate Speaking Lies on Behalf of Power | An Examination of the Emerging Resistance and How the Only Pathway Out of Institutional Collapse as Our Democracy is Destroyed is on the Left backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
Jarrod and Zhana return to talk about their new book "Skyscraper Jails: The Abolitionist Fight Against Jail Expansion in New York City"! We look at how the liberal apparatus used identity politics and divert the abolitionist movement to expand incarceration, and check in how the De Blasio-era plan to closer rikers and replace it with four "community" "justice hubs" has fared under the anti-Woke era of the Adams administration. Lastly, we talk about the the recent "Wildcat" CO strike in state prisons as a broader effort to roll back the reforms of the BLM and other anticarceral struggles, as a preview of the dark plans for expanded incarceration of the Trump 2.0In part 2 of the episode we talk about the counter-revolutoinary history of Tren de Aragua and the Enemy Aliens Act of 1798. to hear it, support the show at http://patreon.com/theantifadaBUY the book from Haymarket: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2454-skyscraper-jailsAdams on new Manhattan jail developments: https://ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/politics/2025/01/18/rikers-manhattan-jail-contractMore info on MH jail redesign: https://newyorkyimby.com/2025/01/new-preliminary-renderings-revealed-for-manhattan-detention-center-at-124-125-white-street-in-chinatown-manhattan.htmlJarrod on upstate prison strike: https://truthout.org/articles/nys-prison-guard-strike-has-roots-in-decades-of-racialized-deindustrialization/Aziz Rana on Consitutional Crisis: https://newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/constitutional-collapseOur early episode with Nadja Guyot from No New Jails: https://www.patreon.com/posts/ep-69-abolish-w-30401262 Song: Cock Sparrer - Out on an Island
Let's take stock of the American experience within the global history of colonialism – specifically by examining the intertwined relationship in U.S. constitutional practice between internal accounts of freedom and external projects of power and expansion. This episode reinterprets American political traditions from the colonial period to modern times by placing race, immigration, and national security in the context of shifting notions of empire and citizenship. Host Sahar Aziz addresses these issues with “The Two Faces of American Freedom” author and Boston College Law Professor Aziz Rana.Support the Center for Security, Race and Rights by following us and making a donation: Donate: https://give.rutgersfoundation.org/csrr-support/20046.html Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rucsrr Follow us on Instagram: https://instagram.com/rutgerscsrr Follow us on Facebook: https://facebook.com/rucsrr Follow us on TikTok: https://tiktok.com/rucsrr Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://csrr.rutgers.edu/newsroom/sign-up-for-newsletter/
This week is a best of 2024, with Rashid Khalidi, Pankaj Mishra, Annelle Sheline, Aziz Rana, Anna Kornbluh, Brooke Harrington, and, in memoriam, Jane McAlevey. Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html
Behind the News, 1/2/25 - Best of 2024: Rashid Khalidi, Pankaj Mishra, Annelle Sheline, Aziz Rana, Anna Kornbluh, Brooke Harrington, and in memoriam Jane McAlevey - Doug Henwood
Three interviews on Israel's many wars: Rashid Khalidi and Pankaj Mishra with a historical perspective, and Annelle Sheline adds a former insider's view. Then, Aziz Rana on the awfulness of the US constitution, Anna Kornbluh with a cultural critique of immediacy, and Brooke Harrington on the offshore money-hiding racket. And a memorial to Jane McAlevey. The post Best of 2024 retrospective appeared first on KPFA.
Fundraising reprise of two interviews from May: Annelle Sheline, who resigned from the State Department as a protest of the war on Gaza, on what's driving US support for that genocide • Aziz Rana on the awfulness of the US Constitution The post Fundraising special: Gaza, the Constitution appeared first on KPFA.
In this episode of The Armen Show, host Armen Shirvanian engages with Professor Aziz Rana, author of The Constitutional Bind. They discuss Rana’s academic journey, the importance of writing in shaping thoughts, and the evolution of his book over time. The conversation delves into the historical context of the Constitution, particularly its reception and interpretation […]
In this live taping of Jacobin's podcast The Dig—recorded at Jewish Currents's recent daylong event and presented in partnership with On the Nose—host Daniel Denvir convened a conversation with scholars Aslı Bâli and Aziz Rana on the past and present of left internationalism. Placing the current eruption of solidarity with Palestine in the context of the rise and fall of Third Worldism, they discuss the history and legacy of that project, the lasting structures of neocolonialism, and the challenge of contesting empire from the heart of empire.This episode was produced by Alex Lewis and Jackson Roach, with music by Jeffrey Brodsky. Thanks also to Jesse Brenneman for additional editing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).Texts Mentioned and Further Reading:“Left Internationalism in the Heart of Empire,” Aziz Rana, Dissent“Reviving the Language of Empire,” Aziz Rana in conversation with Nora Caplan-Bricker, Jewish Currents“The Disastrous Relationship Among Israel, Palestinians and the U.N.,” Aslı Bâli on The Ezra Klein Show, The New York TimesNeo-Colonialism, the Last Stage of Imperialism by Kwame Nkrumah“What We Did: How the Jewish Communist Left Failed the Palestinian Cause,” Dorothy M. Zellner, Jewish CurrentsEmpire As a Way of Life by William Appleman WilliamsDiscourse on Colonialism by Aimé Césaire“From Minneapolis to Jerusalem,” Hannah Black, Jewish Currents“Charging Israel with Genocide,” On the Nose, Jewish Currents
Featuring Aslı Bâli and Aziz Rana on the history of left-wing internationalism from the Third Worldist currents that powered decolonization and struggles against neocolonialism through today's renewed politics in solidarity with the Palestinian national liberation movement. Recorded in New York at Jewish Currents Live. Support The Dig now at Patreon.com/TheDig Buy Center of the World at UCPress.edu Buy Abolish Rent at Haymarketbooks.com
Featuring Aslı Bâli and Aziz Rana on the history of left-wing internationalism from the Third Worldist currents that powered decolonization and struggles against neocolonialism through today's renewed politics in solidarity with the Palestinian national liberation movement. Recorded in New York at Jewish Currents Live. Support The Dig now at Patreon.com/TheDigBuy Center of the World at UCPress.edu Buy Abolish Rent at Haymarketbooks.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Some Americans fear the Federal Constitution falls short in addressing democratic threats, yet it's long been revered for its ideals of liberty and equality. Join us at Town Hall Seattle for a discussion with Aziz Rana, Michael Hardt, and Jaleh Mansoor about Rana's book, The Constitutional Bind, exploring how this flawed document gained mythic status and its impact on society. Rana contends this reverence emerged in the 20th century alongside US global dominance, shaping both domestic and foreign policy. Discover how this cultural phenomenon has hindered meaningful change while silencing an array of movement activists — in Black, Indigenous, feminist, labor, and immigrant politics — who struggled to imagine different constitutional horizons. Gain insights into alternative constitutional futures at this thought-provoking event in collaboration with Red May. Aziz Rana is an American legal scholar and author who currently serves as Richard and Lois Cole Professor of Law at Cornell University specializing in American constitutional law. Michael Hardt teaches political theory in the Literature Program at Duke University. He is co-author, with Antonio Negri, of the Empire trilogy and, most recently, Assembly. He is co-director with Sandro Mezzadra of The Social Movements Lab. Jaleh Mansoor is an associate professor of art history at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, where she teaches modern and contemporary art history with an emphasis on Post WWII European art. Presented by Town Hall Seattle and Red May. Buy the Book The Constitutional Bind: How Americans Came to Idolize a Document That Fails Them Third Place Books
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.americanprestigepod.comDanny and Derek once again speak with Aziz Rana, the incoming J. Donald Monan, S.J., professor of law and government at Boston College, this time to conclude the series on Americans' relationship with the Constitution. This episode explores how economic transformations affected attempts at constitutional reform in the 70s, the rise of originalism, judge…
Today we speak with legal scholar and historian Aziz Rana about his deep study into the ways the Constitution has been critiqued, reimagined, and adapted from liberal, conservative, radical, progressive, decolonial, and other groups since its inception. What emerges from his book is a demystification of a document that is both durable and malleable, conservative at its core but open to both radical challenges and appropriation—a true site of contestation.Aziz Rana is a professor of law at Boston College Law School, where his research and teaching center on American constitutional law and political development. In particular, his work focuses on how shifting notions of race, citizenship, and empire have shaped legal and political identity since the founding. Rana's first book, The Two Faces of American Freedom (Harvard University Press) situates the American experience within the global history of colonialism, examining the intertwined relationship in American constitutional practice between internal accounts of freedom and external projects of power and expansion. His new book, The Constitutional Bind: How Americans Came to Idolize a Document that Fails Them (University of Chicago Press, 2024), explores the modern emergence of constitutional veneration in the twentieth century -- especially against the backdrop of growing American global authority -- and how veneration has influenced the boundaries of popular politics. Aziz Rana has written essays and op-eds for such venues as n+1, The Boston Review, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Dissent, New Labor Forum, Jacobin, The Guardian, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Nation, Jadaliyya, Salon, and The Law and Political Economy Project. He has articles and chapter contributions published or forthcoming with Yale and Oxford University Presses, The University of Chicago Law Review, California Law Review, UCLA Law Review, Texas Law Review, and the Yale Law Journal Forum, among others.
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.americanprestigepod.comAziz Rana, the incoming J. Donald Monan, S.J., professor of law and government at Boston College, once again joins Danny and Derek to continue the discussion about Americans' relationship with the Constitution. The conversation picks up in the postwar period, exploring how the document became an economic document as well as a political one, the rise of …
Danny and Derek welcome back to the program Aziz Rana, the incoming J. Donald Monan, S.J., professor of law and government at Boston College, for a multi-part discussion about how Americans came to revere the Constitution and the worldwide implications. In this episode, the group discusses the latest Supreme Court ruling as of the recording date (Trump v. Anderson), how America's treatment of its constitution compares with those of other nations, the Constitution's development in the country's first century, debates around the document in the Civil War and Reconstruction, and more through the end of the 19th century.The conversation continues on this Sunday's bonus episode!Be sure to grab a copy of the book inspiring this series, The Constitutional Bind: How Americans Came to Idolize a Document That Fails Them. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.americanprestigepod.com/subscribe
This week on American Prestige, hosts Derek Davison and Danny Bessner welcome back to the program Aziz Rana, the incoming J. Donald Monan, S.J., professor of law and government at Boston College, for a multi-part discussion about how Americans came to revere the Constitution and the worldwide implications.In this episode, the group discusses the latest Supreme Court ruling as of the recording date (Trump v. Anderson), how America's treatment of its constitution compares with those of other nations, the Constitution's development in the country's first century, debates around the document in the Civil War and Reconstruction, and more through the end of the 19th century.You can grab a copy of the book inspiring this series, The Constitutional Bind: How Americans Came to Idolize a Document That Fails Them.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Sam Goldman recaps the events of this past week including the totally illegitimate "debate" debacle between Trump and Biden, plus the slew of despotic rulings from the Trump's unelected "Supreme" Court. Then, Sam interviews legal scholar and author Aziz Rana to take a deeper look at U.S. Constitution and its veneration to understand how it has supported the rise and preservation of Trump. He currently serves as Provost's Distinguished Fellow and J. Donald Monan, S.J., University Professor of Law and Government at Boston College Law School, specializing in American constitutional law. His work focuses on how shifting notions of race, citizenship, and empire have shaped legal and political identity since the founding. Aziz is the author of The Two Faces of American Freedom. His latest book, The Constitutional Bind: How Americans Came to Idolize a Document that Fails Them, explores the modern emergence of constitutional veneration in the twentieth century. You can connect with Aziz and find more of his work at azizrana.com. Find out more about Refuse Fascism and get involved at RefuseFascism.org. We're still on Twitter (@RefuseFascism) and other social platforms including Threads, Mastodon and Bluesky. Plus, Sam is on TikTok, check out @samgoldmanrf. You can also send your comments to samanthagoldman@refusefascism.org or @SamBGoldman. Record a voice message for the show here. Connect with the movement at RefuseFascism.org and support: · paypal.me/refusefascism · donate.refusefascism.org · http://patreon.com/RefuseFascism · Venmo: Refuse-Fascism · Cashapp: $RefuseFascism Music for this episode: Penny the Snitch by Ikebe Shakedown Mentioned in this episode: March on the RNC in Milwaukee, WI July 15 The Constitution Won't Save Us From Trump by Aziz Rana The Supreme Court Chooses to Throw January 6 Rioters a Bone by Madiba K. Dennie The Supreme Court just lit a match and tossed it into dozens of federal agencies Why the Leaked SCOTUS Ruling Isn't a Victory by Jessica Valenti The Originalism Trap With Madiba K. Dennie The Freedom to Dominate with Jefferson Cowie The Draft Proposal Constitution For The New Socialist Republic In North America For more on SCOTUS decisions: We Are Witnessing the Biggest Judicial Power Grab Since 1803 by Elie Mystal --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/refuse-fascism/message
Not long ago Convicted Felon D. Trump began shamelessly hawking "Greenwood" Bibles that include not only all 66 Protestant canonical books but The Constitution and Bill of Rights as well. A serious problem we have in the USA is that a number of American citizens believe that our founding documents are quasi-scriptural. In their minds, the Founding Fathers were tapping into The Mind of God when composing such. Now, it's hard to deny that these writings offer some literally world changing ideas that have allowed us as a country to evolve in ways that other nations were not able to do. But they are far from infallible. And of course, any documents are only as good as the people who interpret them. In these episodes our guest Aziz Rana shares his concerns as to how The Constitution has failed us in many ways, and how this Supreme Court is poised to do serious damage to the American people. Not for the faint of heart, but a great conversation. Listen. Learn. Repeat.
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. Revealing how the current constitutional order was forged over the twentieth century, The Constitutional Bind: How Americans Came to Idolize a Document That Fails Them (U Chicago Press, 2024) 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 that Rana reconstructs to forward an ambitious and comprehensive vision for moving past the constitutional bind. Aziz Rana is a Professor and Provost's Distinguished Fellow at Boston College Law School and the incoming J. Donald Monan, S.J., University Professor of Law and Government (beginning 2024). Vatsal Naresh is a Lecturer in Social Studies at Harvard University. He is the editor of Negotiating Democracy and Religious Pluralism (OUP 2021) and Constituent Assemblies (CUP 2018). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/political-science
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. Revealing how the current constitutional order was forged over the twentieth century, The Constitutional Bind: How Americans Came to Idolize a Document That Fails Them (U Chicago Press, 2024) 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 that Rana reconstructs to forward an ambitious and comprehensive vision for moving past the constitutional bind. Aziz Rana is a Professor and Provost's Distinguished Fellow at Boston College Law School and the incoming J. Donald Monan, S.J., University Professor of Law and Government (beginning 2024). Vatsal Naresh is a Lecturer in Social Studies at Harvard University. He is the editor of Negotiating Democracy and Religious Pluralism (OUP 2021) and Constituent Assemblies (CUP 2018). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/critical-theory
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. Revealing how the current constitutional order was forged over the twentieth century, The Constitutional Bind: How Americans Came to Idolize a Document That Fails Them (U Chicago Press, 2024) 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 that Rana reconstructs to forward an ambitious and comprehensive vision for moving past the constitutional bind. Aziz Rana is a Professor and Provost's Distinguished Fellow at Boston College Law School and the incoming J. Donald Monan, S.J., University Professor of Law and Government (beginning 2024). Vatsal Naresh is a Lecturer in Social Studies at Harvard University. He is the editor of Negotiating Democracy and Religious Pluralism (OUP 2021) and Constituent Assemblies (CUP 2018). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/intellectual-history
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. Revealing how the current constitutional order was forged over the twentieth century, The Constitutional Bind: How Americans Came to Idolize a Document That Fails Them (U Chicago Press, 2024) 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 that Rana reconstructs to forward an ambitious and comprehensive vision for moving past the constitutional bind. Aziz Rana is a Professor and Provost's Distinguished Fellow at Boston College Law School and the incoming J. Donald Monan, S.J., University Professor of Law and Government (beginning 2024). Vatsal Naresh is a Lecturer in Social Studies at Harvard University. He is the editor of Negotiating Democracy and Religious Pluralism (OUP 2021) and Constituent Assemblies (CUP 2018). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-studies
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. Revealing how the current constitutional order was forged over the twentieth century, The Constitutional Bind: How Americans Came to Idolize a Document That Fails Them (U Chicago Press, 2024) 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 that Rana reconstructs to forward an ambitious and comprehensive vision for moving past the constitutional bind. Aziz Rana is a Professor and Provost's Distinguished Fellow at Boston College Law School and the incoming J. Donald Monan, S.J., University Professor of Law and Government (beginning 2024). Vatsal Naresh is a Lecturer in Social Studies at Harvard University. He is the editor of Negotiating Democracy and Religious Pluralism (OUP 2021) and Constituent Assemblies (CUP 2018). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/law
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. Revealing how the current constitutional order was forged over the twentieth century, The Constitutional Bind: How Americans Came to Idolize a Document That Fails Them (U Chicago Press, 2024) 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 that Rana reconstructs to forward an ambitious and comprehensive vision for moving past the constitutional bind. Aziz Rana is a Professor and Provost's Distinguished Fellow at Boston College Law School and the incoming J. Donald Monan, S.J., University Professor of Law and Government (beginning 2024). Vatsal Naresh is a Lecturer in Social Studies at Harvard University. He is the editor of Negotiating Democracy and Religious Pluralism (OUP 2021) and Constituent Assemblies (CUP 2018). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Political analyst Yuval Levin, author of American Covenant: How the Constitution Unified Our Nation—and Could Again, and scholar Aziz Rana, author of The Constitutional Bind: How Americans Came to Idolize a Document That Fails Them, discuss the Constitution as America's religion and its role in fostering the American dream. Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, moderates. Resources: Yuval Levin, American Covenant: How the Constitution Unified Our Nation―and Could Again, (2024) Aziz Rana, The Constitutional Bind: How Americans Came to Idolize a Document That Fails Them (2024) “The Modern History of Originalism,” We the People Podcast (Aug. 3, 2023) Article V, Interactive Constitution Stay Connected and Learn More: Questions or comments about the show? Email us at programs@constitutioncenter.org Continue the conversation by following us on social media @ConstitutionCtr. Sign up to receive Constitution Weekly, our email roundup of constitutional news and debate. Subscribe, rate, and review wherever you listen. Join us for an upcoming live program or watch recordings on YouTube. Support our important work. Donate
In this episode, AEI's Yuval Levin, author of American Covenant: How the Constitution Unified Our Nation—and Could Again, and Aziz Rana, professor at Boston College Law and author of The Constitutional Bind: How Americans Came to Idolize a Document That Fails Them, join Jeffrey Rosen for a discussion about whether the Constitution has failed us or can serve as a document of national unity. Resources: Yuval Levin, American Covenant: How the Constitution Unified Our Nation—and Could Again (2024) Aziz Rana, The Constitutional Bind: How Americans Came to Idolize a Document That Fails Them (2024) “The Modern History of Originalism,” NCC's We the People podcast, (Aug 2023) Article V, Interactive Constitution Questions or comments about the show? Email us at podcast@constitutioncenter.org. Continue today's conversation on Facebook and Twitter using @ConstitutionCtr. Sign up to receive Constitution Weekly, our email roundup of constitutional news and debate, at bit.ly/constitutionweekly. You can find transcripts for each episode on the podcast pages in our Media Library.
Aziz Rana, author of The Constitutional Bind: How Americans Came to Idolize a Document that Fails Them, analyzes how our founding document constrains democracy but we worship it anyway.Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Aziz Rana about the failures of the US Constitution. They discuss the timeframe of 1887-1987, why people resist criticisms of the US Constitution, and creedal constitutionalism. They discuss the positive aspects of the Constitution, empire settlerism and the US state in post-reconstruction era. They discuss the Socialist Party of America, WWI and pro-constitutionalism, the New Deal, and government elites post WWII. They talk about justices with more authority over the Constitutionalism, originalism, Black Panther movement, the future of the Constitution, and many other topics. Aziz Rana is professor of Law at Boston College Law School where his main interests are American Constitutional law and political development. He has his Bachelors from Harvard College, JD from Yale Law School, and PhD in political science from Harvard University. He has written for The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Guardian, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and The Law and Political Economy Project. He is the author of the latest book, The Constitutional Bind: How Americans came to idolize a document that fails them. Website: https://www.azizrana.com/ Get full access to Converging Dialogues at convergingdialogues.substack.com/subscribe
Behind the News, 5/30/24 - guest: Aziz Rana on the Constitution fetish - Doug Henwood
Aziz Rana, author of The Constitutional Bind: How Americans Came to Idolize a Document that Fails Them, on how our founding document constrains democracy The post The Constitutional fetish appeared first on KPFA.
Donald and Luke talk with Aziz Rana about his latest book, The Constitutional Bind: How Americans Came to Idolize a Document That Fails Them. Rana discusses why constitutional veneration has remained (for now) "a naturalized, unremarked-upon feature” of American life despite the Constitution's flagrantly undemocratic nature. Along the way, he touches on the Socialist Party of America's constitutional skepticism, the impact of war and foreign revolutions on constitutional ideology, and the risks and rewards of our current moment. Rana integrates the lives of several important people, including Crystal Eastman, W.E.B DuBois, Eugene Debs, Afemi Shakur, and Charles Beard.
A Pro-Israel Mob Invades the UCLA Campus to Beat up Pro-Palestinian Students While the Police Look On | Assessing the Flaws and Exploring the Fixes to a Constitution That is Failing Americans As Fascism Threatens Our Democracy Host: Ian Masters Producer: Graham FitzGibbon Assistant Producer: Evan Green
America's Foundation as a Christian Nation and How the Right Captured Freedom | The "Christian" Moral Authoritarianism of Supreme Court Justices in the Pockets of Plutocrats
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.americanprestigepod.comDanny welcomes back Aziz Rana, the provost's distinguished fellow at Boston College, for a discussion of the US Supreme Court from a comparative international perspective. They get into the Court's domestic role, when and how it assumed an anti-democratic function, how it compares with other supreme courts around the world, the possibility for reform, a…