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America Unfinished: 250 Years of Law and Governance
An engaging and timely essay collection on the challenges, risks, and opportunities of this historic moment in American law and governance.
1,000-word essays from the country’s leading legal scholars and experts.
It is the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, and the U.S. is grappling with foundational challenges to its laws, institutions of governance, and civic culture. Longstanding values of pluralism are being challenged. The nation is beset by deep political polarization, a fear that the economic order is no longer providing opportunities for all, and a technology revolution that may unsettle what it means to be uniquely human. America Unfinished brings together more than 50 legal scholars on the Harvard Law School faculty to analyze this historic moment in American law and governance.
Edited by Alexandra Natapoff and Guy-Uriel Charles, the book coheres around the dramatic experiment in American legal governance that began in 1776, still highly contested after 250 years. Some essays explore the modern expansion of executive power, including its recent and dramatic willingness to use violence, both domestically and internationally. Other essays examine longstanding divides between workers, consumers, and markets, and the hard questions they raise about democratic accountability in our market-driven economy. And finally, some contributors address the future of our knowledge and governance institutions under pressure from the disruptions caused by technological and informational revolution.
Dynamic and engaging, the collection does nothing less than advance the core conversations necessary for a thriving polity, both at this historic moment and for decades to come.
1,000-word essays from the country’s leading legal scholars and experts.
It is the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, and the U.S. is grappling with foundational challenges to its laws, institutions of governance, and civic culture. Longstanding values of pluralism are being challenged. The nation is beset by deep political polarization, a fear that the economic order is no longer providing opportunities for all, and a technology revolution that may unsettle what it means to be uniquely human. America Unfinished brings together more than 50 legal scholars on the Harvard Law School faculty to analyze this historic moment in American law and governance.
Edited by Alexandra Natapoff and Guy-Uriel Charles, the book coheres around the dramatic experiment in American legal governance that began in 1776, still highly contested after 250 years. Some essays explore the modern expansion of executive power, including its recent and dramatic willingness to use violence, both domestically and internationally. Other essays examine longstanding divides between workers, consumers, and markets, and the hard questions they raise about democratic accountability in our market-driven economy. And finally, some contributors address the future of our knowledge and governance institutions under pressure from the disruptions caused by technological and informational revolution.
Dynamic and engaging, the collection does nothing less than advance the core conversations necessary for a thriving polity, both at this historic moment and for decades to come.
324 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 7, 2026
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July 19, 2026
I finished it. It's actually a good book. I won't lie. The book argues that the country is unfinished. America is unfinished. America and the Declaration of Independence promise liberty, equality, and pluralism. Each essay in the book is roughly a thousand words. I first thought that this book was going to be around center-left to far-left, but actually no. The book critiques both progressive politics and conservative politics, arguing that America is under attack by both sides. All the essays avoid finger-pointing and instead ask how institutions can adapt while preserving core classical liberal values. Though I might add as a critique that as with most essay collections, some contributions are more scholarly and sharper, while others are more original. My favorite essay was called Legal Nihilism. It was only two sentences, and the rest were just sources cited in those two sentences. Overall, this is an excellent and thought-provoking title. I highly recommend it, and though it's not perfect, I will recommend it to everyone who asks for political science books.
Displaying 1 of 1 review