This week I finished: Power and Liberty: Constitutionalism in the American Revolution, by Gordon Wood: I've been reading, watching, and listening to Akhil Reed Amar's work. He praises Gordon Wood so I borrowed this book from the library and watched a bunch of videos of his talks. This book covers the history around the Declaration of Independence and Constitution. It covers the events prompting the colonists developing new views on liberty versus monarchical rule, developing principles like separation of powers and the people being sovereign, voting for representatives, checks and balances, and other developments, some new in history. This book led me to realize how easy it's been to consider declaring independence and writing a constitution obvious steps. The parallel processes of creating thirteen state…

This week I finished: The Devil's Climb, starring Alex Honnold and Tommy Caldwell: I got tickets to watch this movie followed by a talk including Honnold and Caldwell. My nephew is a rock climber, so I invited him, who invited a climbing partner friend, plus a coaching client is a climber, so the four of us attended. The movie was engaging, heartwarming, and thrilling. It touches on climate but not other issues of polluting and depleting. On the other hand it shows their camaraderie. My nephew's friend said he thought it skimped on the climbing details, but I lacked the background to tell. Plus we met the two stars and members of their team after, in person. It was part of "Climate Week," where something…

This week I finished: The Constitution Today: Timeless Lessons for the Issues of our Ira, by Akhil Reed Amar: I have been studying the Constitution like never before. The path to it was realizing sustainability meant changing culture, which forced me to ask if it was possible, which pointed me to abolitionism, which pointed me to Lincoln and abolitionists, which led me to the Thirteenth Amendment, which led me to the Constitution. Another path branched off to learning about Robert Carter III, which led went through learning the flaws of founders like Jefferson, Madison, Washington, and Franklin, which led to the Constitution. Amar is a constitutional law professor like podcast guest Michael Herz. I first found Amar looking up James Madison. There are dozens, maybe…

This week I finished: Common Sense, by Thomas Paine: I read this book because the more I read about it, the more my book seemed to be following its legacy, though I want to be careful about flattering myself, given its sales and influence. I was pleasantly surprised at how much of this book made common sense though the language was hard to understand. I didn't realize a book had affected American history so much. I understand about 500,000 copies sold at a time when the number of colonists was about 2,500,000, meaning 20 percent of them bought it, the equivalent of 60 million copies of a book today. Paine railed on monarchy, especially hereditary, how England was helping itself, not the colonies, and was…