Jill Lepore

the former Confederate states are required to ratify the 14th Amendment.

So they would say like, yeah, well...

we didn't vote for it in Congress and we ratified it like at the point of a gun.

So like I should have led with, yes, the Civil War and Reconstruction, the 13th, 14th, 15th Amendments are amazing and they reconstitute the country and they are generally thought of by historians as essentially a second constitutional convention, especially the 39th Congress is essentially a constitutional convention.

Like that's all they're doing is trying to figure out what should be in the 14th Amendment, which is extremely long and is the most important amendment to the Constitution.

So it is a whole new beginning, a second founding, as Eric Foner calls it.

That said, and so it's a miracle, but it's only accomplished because 750,000 people have just died in a civil war and the defeated South is being treated like a conquered country and disenfranchised.

Yeah, so the amendments we do have really have come in bursts.

Like the Bill of Rights was all at once.

The Reconstruction Amendment was essentially all at once.

The Progressive Amendments, there are four amendments between 1913 and 1920.

And then there's four amendments between 1961 and 1971.

And then since then...

It's like a flat line.

There's one blip, which is in 1992.

The 27th Amendment is ratified, but it was introduced in 1789.

It was kind of lost in the paperwork.

So I don't think it qualifies.

So why have we not amended the U.S.

Constitution since 1971 then?