Sunday was Constitution Day (sometimes called Citizenship Day), marking the anniversary in 1787, when 39 delegates in Independence Hall in Philadelphia signed the Constitution, bringing our form of representative democracy into being. It’s worth noting that, while our founders described the equality of “we the people” as being “self-evident”, in 1787 it was actually an open question. No similar government had ever yet succeeded. But because ours did, it has become a model for all similar governments founded since.
Studying this historic document is a privilege of citizenship, and IU East is offering plenty of opportunities for doing just that. On Wednesday, September 20th, from 11 am to 2 pm in the lobby of Springwood Hall, there will be contests and giveaways related to our “Charters of Freedom”. You can test your knowledge of the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution, and win prizes. And you can create your own video rendition of the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution (email videos to, and for more information contact, Dr. Scott Lee at scottlee@iue.edu).
The library offers lots of resources for study, as well. We have numerous databases that promote civic responsibility and understanding, such as American History Online, CQ Researcher, American Memory, and Daily Life through History. We’ve even constructed a LibGuide full of resources, information, interpretation, and trivia to get you started.
And we have books that run the gamut of constitutional facets, helping you apply constitutional knowledge to practically any discipline: from law, with The Citizen’s Constitution: An Annotated Guide, View of the Constitution of the United States by St. George Tucker, or Constitution of the United States: In Some of Its Fundamental Aspects by Gaspar Bacon; to history, with Keeping Faith with the Constitution by Goodwin Liu or Everyman’s Constitution: Historical Essays on the Fourteenth Amendment, the Conspiracy Theory, and American Constitutionalism by Howard Graham; to literature, with Secular Revelations: The Constitution of the United States and Classic American Literature by Mitchell Meltzer; to religion, with Religious Freedom and the Constitution by Christopher L. Eisgruber; to economics, with To Form a More Perfect Union: A New Economic Interpretation of the United States Constitution by Robert McGuire. We even have ephemera like maps, such as Ratification of the Constitution 1787-1790.
We celebrate Independence Day on the fourth of July in honor of our freedom. But Constitution Day memorializes our great contract, the inspiration of all democracies since, “between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born”. It is a celebration of our responsibility and purpose. Don’t let week go by without reading it!
Need help finding more? Ask us at iueref@iue.edu!