About:

About this class

Toward a More Perfect Union: Amending the Constitution: The framers of the Constitution incorporated Article V—the Amendatory Clause—into the Constitution to empower subsequent generations of Americans to improve upon their work and form a more perfect union.  This class will focus on the history, concerns, motives and debates that lay behind the Bill of Rights, and the Reconstruction Amendments—the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments—to better understand how the sovereign people over the course of our nation’s history have decided how to create a better, more democratic America.  The class will include lectures and extensive Q & A opportunities, with the hope that students will be engaged and eager to participate in discussion.

This is a 12-week virtual class using the Zoom platform.  Mondays: Jan. 17, 24, 31, Feb. 7, 14, 21, 28, March 7, 14, 21, 28, April 4, 6:30-8:30 pm CST

David Adler David Gray Adler is President of The Alturas Institute, a non-profit organization created to promote the Constitution, gender equality, and civic education.  A recipient of teaching, writing and civic awards, Adler has lectured nationally and internationally, and published widely, on the Constitution, presidential power and the Bill of Rights. He is the author of six books, including, most recently, The War Power in an Age of Terrorism, as well as more than 100 scholarly articles in the leading journals of his field.  He is currently writing a book on the landmark Supreme Court decision in Reed v. Reed, which had its origins in Idaho and transformed the law for American women.  Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will write the foreword to the book, the research and  writing of which is supported by a research fellowship from the Idaho Humanities Council.

HND Value Statement

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this {article, book, exhibition, film, program, database, report, Web resource}, do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities or Humanities North Dakota.

However, in an increasingly polarized world, we at Humanities North Dakota believe that being open-minded is necessary to thinking critically and rationally.

Therefore, our programs and classes reflect our own open-mindedness in the inquiry, seeking, and acquiring of scholars to speak at our events and teach classes for our Public University.

To that end, we encourage our participants to join us in stepping outside our comfort zones and considering other perspectives and ideas by being open-minded while attending HND events featuring scholars who hold a variety of opinions, some being opposite of our own held beliefs.