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jrakove.bsky.social
Native Cook County Democrat, Cubs fan, and long-time historian of the American Revolution and Constitution
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On the theme of constitutional failure and emergency, see this piece by my friend and colleague, Johann Neem. My one reservation is that I would place the Impeachment Clause atop my list of failed provisions. jneem.substack.com/p/donald-tru...

submitted 9 days ago • 23 comments

This strikes me, to use one of my (many) favorite French expressions, as une question mal posée. The problem is not, are we having a constitutional crisis? Only an idiot would deny that. The real problem is that we are experiencing overt constitutional failure. www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...

submitted 10 days ago • 6 comments

I'm a longtime fan of John McCormick's great book, Machiavellian Democracy, and believe that the points that he emphasizes there about the need to curb elite domination through active prosecution are remarkable salient to our wretched times, when the preservation of the republic is at stake.

submitted 12 days ago • 2 comments

I would suggest that. serious (and certainly academic) readers go back to the great landmark work by my late grad school friend and Bay Area colleague, James Kettner, The Development of American Citizenship, 1608-1870 (1978).

submitted 15 days ago • 5 comments

Plus in their wisdom they protected us from the far greater danger that somewhere down the road, in a constitutional cloud cuckoo land, some rogue prosecutor would place the Republic in even greater danger by willfully indicting a blameless president.

submitted 21 days ago • 0 comments

And a p.s. The 2nd charge against Geo III in the Declaration of Independence: "He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them"

submitted 24 days ago • 0 comments

Tonight's history lesson: Amid all the concerns raised about our current state of constitutional chaos, a few points deserve special mention. Much of the constitutional thinking of the American revolutionary era had its deep origins in the political disputes of 17th-c. England.

submitted 24 days ago • 1 comment

for serious readers in diplomatic history (a Rakove family interest since the 1950s, as it happens)

submitted 24 days ago • 0 comments

Perhaps Noah sees a niche to become the Jonathan Turley of the left. And here I write a daily outline in my head on the idea of A Model of Constitutional Failure: The American Case. How about the Impeachment Clauses? the Advice and Consent Clauses, now failing to eliminate obvious incompetents.

submitted 27 days ago • 7 comments

I disagree with this to some extent. The assembling of the Continental Congress in Sept. 1774 and the success of the MA militia and provisional army at Concord and Bunker Hill, followed by the creation of the Continental Army, demonstrated that the whole British strategy was flawed from the outset.

submitted 31 days ago • 2 comments

Terrific thread and a great historical anecdote, or better, lesson.

submitted 33 days ago • 1 comment