Pete’s Pick
January 2025
American Covenant
Yuval Levin
Basic Books Publishing
June 11, 2024
Introduction
This book is a discussion of the creation of the U.S. Constitution and the changes in our political climate over the last 237 years that have affected how our government operates and how we, the people, understand our government.
Author
Yuval Levin is the director of Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he holds the Beth and Ravenel Curry Chair in Public Policy. The founder and editor of National Affairs, he is also a senior editor at The New Atlantis, a contributing editor at National Review, and a contributing opinion writer at The New York Times. His previous books include The Fractured Republic and A Time to Build. A former member of the White House domestic policy staff under President George W. Bush, he live in Maryland.
Text
As an educated political scientist used to studying pretty heavy texts on government operations, I approached this read with a curious frame of mind. I have always loved the beginnings of our country, and was recently pumped up again after reading David McCullough’s biography of John Adams. I have been concerned about the state of our country and the increasingly ineffective functioning of the U.S. Congress in the last 20 years or so. Now added to my worries are concerns about the functioning of the U.S. Supreme Court. So, I was hoping for some enlightened perspective in reading this book.
Mr. Levin does an excellent job of capturing the history of the U.S. Constitutional Convention which took place in Philadelphia beginning in 1787. He takes us through the Convention and recaps the significant issues that needed resolution in order to create a functioning central government—something the country was lacking because it was really just a confederation of 13 individual states. However, the experience of the first 19 years of our country’s existence highlighted the risk the country faced by not having a functioning central government. Yet, the challenges of reaching agreement between 13 very different state perspectives was stupefying. Mr. Levin relies heavily on James Madison’s personal notes, his journal that he kept during the Convention, to help us understand the logic and thinking that went into the compromises that were made to create our central federal government. He takes us through the various negotiations that became necessary and also explains the logic behind the various points of view that needed to be accommodated. He then gives us a perspective on the unique nature of we the people under this new republican democracy that the world had never seen before. Mr. Levin then takes us through quite a discussion as to how our environment and political culture have changed adversely in the last 50 or so years leading us into what he terms a demagoguery.
The author explores for us the concept of Federalism as it existed as a guide in forming the government in 1787, and then takes a look at each of the three branches of government. It each case, he recounts the original concept as written in the Constitution and the thought behind each branch’s purpose in our governmental operation. As he explores each branch, he is also careful to describe how its functioning has changed over the years to what is actually happening now. He also explores some thought into what changes would be necessary to take us back to the original concept of government operations our founders gave us when they gave us the U. S. Constitution and it was ratified by the States. He concludes the book with quite a discussion of the challenges that confront us if we decide to become serious about restoring government operation to the way it was originally intended.
Evaluation
As a political nerd, I was expecting some heavy duty refresher on my understanding of our form of government—and I got it. I grew up very conservative in political thought. Over my adulthood, I have found my views mellowing and even becoming more liberal. However, over the last 20 or so years, I have found myself distressed at the seeming inability of our government to work as it was designed to work. I place most of the blame on a change in political thought that seems to have overtaken those we have elected to office. Whether that change is the result of change in voters’ thinking, or is the result of politicians swaying us with a different perspective, it is almost frightening to me how “corrupt” and ineffective our government has become. As I read through Yuval Levin’s text, I found many “aha” moments to reflect on and I find myself for the most part agreeing with his evaluation of our current situation. I want to believe it is possible to fix our mess, but I sense it is going to require a new generation of politicians with a desire to return to the original concept of government for that to happen.
I found the book challenging, and yet I’m glad I read it.