Panel Discussion: Leading Experts on the Origins of the First Amendment

Moderator Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, was joined on stage by Jacob Mchangama, founder and CEO of Justitia and research professor at Vanderbilt University; Akhil Reed Amar, professor of law and political science at Yale University; and Stephen Solomon, professor of journalism at New York University and founding editor of First Amendment Watch.

Akhil Reed Amar: “The Words that Made Us: America’s Constitutional Conversation, 1760-1840”

In his newest book, The Words that Made Us: America’s Constitutional Conversation 1760-1840, Yale law professor and constitutional historian Akhil Reed Amar tells the story of the first 80 years of democratic debate in the United States. This excerpt focuses on the origins of America’s newspaper culture and the central role it played in forming our democracy.