Scholars Online

Michael Vorenberg

Brown University

Filmed in February 2008.

How did the Constitution exclude certain groups? [2:56]

Why did the Constitution have to be amended to abolish slavery? [1:55]

What is the role of the Constitutional amendment? [3:06]

Why has the U.S. Constitution endured for more than 200 years? [2:18]

What is the basic principle of American democracy? [3:06]

Why should high school students learn about the Constitution? [1:55]

Michael Vorenberg is an associate professor of history at Brown University. He received his AB, AM, and PhD, all in history, from Harvard University. Vorenberg's first book, Final Freedom: The Civil War, the Abolition of Slavery, and the Thirteenth Amendment (Cambridge, 2001), deals with the making and meaning of the Thirteenth Amendment. His second book, Reconstructing the People: The Invention of Citizenship During the American Civil War, examines how elite and ordinary members of the Union and the Confederacy during the Civil War translated notions of citizenship into law, policy, and manifest belief. He is currently working on a number of articles as well as a book on the Emancipation Proclamation. Before becoming a professor, Vorenberg was also a secondary school teacher. He has received numerous awards and fellowships for his writing and teaching.