The Rise and Fall of the American Constitutional Model
On this episode of American Prestige, Aziz Rana on how Americans came to revere the Constitution.

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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.
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This week on American Prestige, we welcome back to the program Aziz Rana, the incoming J. Donald Monan, SJ, professor of law and government at Boston College, for a multipart 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 that 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.

Here's where to find podcasts from The Nation. Political talk without the boring parts, featuring the writers, activists and artists who shape the news, from a progressive perspective.
Danny and Derek speak with historian Alfred McCoy about how the Cold War operated as a global conflict influenced by decolonization, covert action, and geopolitical strategy. They discuss the role of individual intelligence operatives as “men on the spot”; Cold War rivalry and the collapse of European empires; how conflicts across Asia, Africa, and Latin America produced much of the war’s violence; the development of U.S. containment strategy and covert action institutions; and Iran as flashpoint in Cold War and post-Cold War geopolitics, and how Alfred interprets these conflicts through a lens of imperial decline and strategic chokepoints like the Suez Canal and the Strait of Hormuz.
Buy Alfred’s book Cold War on Five Continents!
Reading recommendation: The Cold War's Killing Fields: Rethinking the Long Peaceby Paul Thomas Chamberlin.
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