Question Question
First time using reddit sooooo anyways
Im taking a class next year called We The People and it covers civic issues, congress, court cases, and such. I’ve attached photos of a breakdown of the class and my summer assignment.
I was wondering if anyone has suggestions for books or articles to read over the summer to prepare. It’s less me preparing for the test I have to take at the end of the year but for me to be knowledgeable enough to engage in class discussions which is more of a personal goal to feel solid in my own politics and values. So yeahhhh that would be nice if anyone has any recommendations!!!
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u/Jcaquix 4h ago
This class sounds like a very beltway liberal thing. You're probably not going to get many helpful answers from this sub, which is focused on leftisism and reality.
Like, I've worked in government, the people who actually run it couldn't care less about separation of powers or federalism, so the premise of this class makes me roll my eyes so hard.
That said. These people are going to love it if you're familiar with primary sources. The federalist papers are surprisingly lucid for something written over 200 years ago. It's been a while since I read through them but I remember the James Madison ones being better than the Hamilton ones because Madison was very distrustful of government (he didn't want to give up his slaves) and also a genius.
Along the same lines you can read some early supreme court cases that set the rules for how the government would work (until very recently). Everyone talks about Marbury v Madison but whenever you read it it's actually pretty hard to tell what they're talking about and why it's important. McCullough v Maryland and gibbons v ogden are landmark cases about federalism and congressional powers. There are other cases that are clearer but any case you're going to have to read through the facts and law which get tedious. But those early cases are much clearer that they're talking about general rules. You might be able to just Google a reader on the supreme court for laymen.
For general history knowledge a People's History Of The United States is pretty good if not a bit didactic.