Mark Peterson, "The Making and Breaking of the American Constitution: A Thousand-Year History" (Princeton UP, 2026)

The U.S. Constitution is not a static founding document but a living, evolving relationship between the American people and their government—a process of constant 'making and breaking' over a thousand years. In his provocative new book, Yale historian Dr. Mark Peterson argues that the Constitution’s true origins lie not in 1787, but in medieval England’s Doomsday Book, which first codified how land and resources were mobilized for state power. From there, he traces how British colonial practices were projected onto North America, transforming Indigenous lands into a settler-colonial state. The real 'founding' wasn't a single event but a series of ruptures: the rejection of British rule, the creation of state constitutions, the failure of the Articles of Confederation, and the 1787 realignment that empowered a national government to conquer and develop the West. Peterson reveals how the Constitution’s expansionist logic—what he calls the 'Doomsday Machine'—was inherently imperial, promising land and prosperity to white citizens while excluding Indigenous and enslaved people. He shows how pivotal moments like the Louisiana Purchase and the Civil War amendments were constitutional breakings that reshaped the nation, often in ways that created new crises. Today, he warns, the Constitution is stuck in 18th-century structures—like equal Senate representation and a rigid amendment process—that no longer reflect a modern, urban, diverse America. The solution?