American Covenant

How the Constitution Unified Our Nation—and Could Again

By: Yuval Levin

Narrated by: Leon Nixon

Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

A top conservative scholar reveals the Constitution’s remarkable power to repair our broken civic culture, rescue our malfunctioning politics, and unify a fractious America

Common ground is hard to find in today’s politics. In a society teeming with irreconcilable political perspectives, many people have grown frustrated under a system of government that constantly demands compromise. More and more on both the right and the left have come to blame the Constitution for the resulting discord. But the Constitution is not the problem we face; it is the solution.

Blending engaging history with lucid analysis, conservative scholar Yuval Levin’s American Covenant recovers the Constitution’s true genius and reveals how it charts a path to repairing America’s fault lines. Uncovering the framers’ sophisticated grasp of political division, Levin showcases the Constitution’s exceptional power to facilitate constructive disagreement, negotiate resolutions to disputes, and forge unity in a fractured society. Clear-eyed about the ways that contemporary politics have malfunctioned, Levin also offers practical solutions for reforming those aspects of the constitutional order that have gone awry.

Hopeful, insightful, and rooted in the best of our political tradition, American Covenant celebrates the Constitution’s remarkable power to bind together a diverse society, reassuring us that a less divided future is within our grasp.

©2024 Yuval Levin (P)2024 Basic Books

Critic reviews

“Because we Americans have forgotten how to disagree with one another, forgotten how to collaborate and compromise, Yuval Levin contends, in clear and persuasive prose, that the United States Constitution offers us a welcome framework for promoting our desperately needed national unity. Indeed, no one has ever explained so authoritatively and so judiciously the significance of the Constitution for the health of our civic life as Levin has in this brilliant book. It is an extraordinary achievement.”—Gordon Wood, author of The Creation of the American Republic

“Yuval Levin may be the most important voice in the political culture right now. His serious, solutions-based thinking is an excellent corrective to the current moment, which is seemingly all about fostering division rather than rebuilding a common sense of purpose. His new book is a key part of the solution.”—Ben Shapiro, founding editor of The Daily Wire

“In an era where both sides of the political spectrum see each other as mortal enemies and endless bickering is the norm, Yuval Levin brilliantly teaches how the spirit and substance of the Constitution can soften our animosity and make our disagreements constructive. American Covenant is a clear and hopeful guide for a more dignified and unified America.”—Spencer Cox, Governor of Utah

An absolute must read for haters of "the other side" and for everyone else.

Even if you fancy yourself a bit of a Constitutional scholar, this book is a must read. Levin puts forward what should not be, but unfortunately is, yet another misunderstood or unknown genius of the Constitution and it's founders, namely that it was designed to manage disagreement and to force us to live together. When men are free, they will disagree and upon that, we can unite. Unity does not come from total victory over the other side, but in our action where decisions are made by the majority but never with becoming untethered to the minority. it is not an efficient system, nor is it meant to be. Those that would thwart its structure out of frustration having to deal with those who disagree, are placing the country on a path of destruction. We must accept all victories as partial and fleeting even as our concept of individual freedom and inclusively grow. Really a very well-grounded book in the founders' thinking and writing. Educational for the mind and soul and the prescription for the anger and divisiveness presently affliction the nation.

Unity in Problem-Solving

Yuval Levin’s masterful book points the way forward in fostering a spirit of public problem-solving across our differences.