Description: A detailed and compelling examination of how the legal theory of originalism ignores and distorts the very constitutional history from which it derives interpretive authority
Review Quotes: "What are the chances that, in 2024, a new book could fundamentally reorient how we understand America's founding? Jonathan Gienapp . . . has written such a book. . . . You read it, and you get vertigo. . . . Gienapp's book comes as a thunderclap."--Cass Sunstein, Washington Post
Chosen by Joy Porter for History Today "Books of the Year" 2024 "Against Constitutional Originalism . . . injects a fresh, powerful new argument against originalism into the debate."--Andrew Lanham, New Republic "Admirably clear, crisply paced, and persuasively argued. . . . As an academic theory, originalism is on a standing eight count."--Calvin TerBeek, American Political Thought "Arguably the most important book written against originalist methodology. Originalists in the academy have little choice but to pay attention to it and respond to its charges. Gienapp . . . has emerged as one of [originalism's] ablest critics."--Aaron N. Coleman, Law & Liberty "Against Constitutional Originalism . . . is a tour de force--among the most important books published in the field of constitutional law in a generation. Deep, sophisticated, and tremendously well written, it poses what might well be the stiffest challenge to the originalist project to date."--Thomas B. Colby, Yale Journal of Law and the Humanities "A powerful and subtle critique. . . . [Gienapp] offers us a deep and capacious understanding of the founders' Constitution that will endure."--George Thomas, American Political Thought "Jonathan Gienapp . . . supplies a powerful, perhaps unanswerable critique of the analytic foundations of originalist interpretive theory."--John Witt, Yale Journal of Law and the Humanities Longlisted for the 2025 Cundill History Prize, sponsored by McGill University Winner of the 2025 Order of the Coif Book Award "Just when you thought that surely there is nothing new or interesting to say about originalism, along comes Jonathan Gienapp. Against Constitutional Originalism is a must-read. For anyone new to the debates, it provides a comprehensive presentation of the arguments on all sides. For those already familiar, he takes the debate in a new direction that is a level deeper and more foundational. In so doing, he puts advocates of the theory into a conundrum that must force some kind of reconsideration."--Larry Kramer, author of The People Themselves "Professor Gienapp offers a new and devastating critique of originalism. Approaching originalism as an historian, he powerfully shows that originalism is a 'contrived modern legal fiction' that cannot be justified based on the original Constitution."--Erwin Chemerinsky, author of Worse Than Nothing "Most critiques of originalism attack its view of how to think about what the words of the Constitution mean. Gienapp's analysis cuts far deeper; through exquisitely careful historical research, Gienapp shows that today's originalists have overlooked the Founders' understanding of what the Constitution even is. Against Constitutional Originalism is the most important book in constitutional theory since John Hart Ely's Democracy and Distrust."--Benjamin C. Zipursky, Fordham University School of Law "This book is a crucial intervention in the long-running discourse about a method of constitutional interpretation that has gained ascendancy in recent years. Gienapp's persuasive pushback should be read by all who are concerned about the future of American constitutional law and the American Republic."--Annette Gordon-Reed, Harvard University "This is a critically important book about how our Constitution is read. It shakes the foundation of current practice to its core, and its conclusions will take time to be accepted by judges and lawyers. But the book will eventually change fundamentally the practice of constitutional jurisprudence. When it does, it will allow our law to become more democratically accountable--to the people who enact our laws, not the ancestors in our constitutional tradition."--Lawrence Lessig, coauthor of How to Steal a Presidential Election