America Unfinished: 250 Years of Law and Governance

An engaging and timely essay collection on the challenges, risks, and opportunities of this historic moment in American law and governance.

1,000-word essays from the country's leading legal scholars and experts.

It is the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, and the U.S. is grappling with foundational challenges to its laws, institutions of governance, and civic culture. Longstanding values of pluralism are being challenged. The nation is beset by deep political polarization, a fear that the economic order is no longer providing opportunities for all, and a technology revolution that may unsettle what it means to be uniquely human. America Unfinished brings together more than 50 legal scholars on the Harvard Law School faculty to analyze this historic moment in American law and governance.

Edited by Alexandra Natapoff and Guy-Uriel Charles, the book coheres around the dramatic experiment in American legal governance that began in 1776, still highly contested after 250 years. Some essays explore the modern expansion of executive power, including its recent and dramatic willingness to use violence, both domestically and internationally. Other essays examine longstanding divides between workers, consumers, and markets, and the hard questions they raise about democratic accountability in our market-driven economy. And finally, some contributors address the future of our knowledge and governance institutions under pressure from the disruptions caused by technological and informational revolution.

Dynamic and engaging, the collection does nothing less than advance the core conversations necessary for a thriving polity, both at this historic moment and for decades to come.

Contributors: Bill Alford, Sabrineh Ardalan, Yochai Benkler, Sharon Block, Nikolas Bowie, Maureen Brady, Scott Brewer, Stephen Breyer, Emily Broad Leib, Tomiko Brown-Nagin, Guy-Uriel E. Charles, John Coates, I. Glenn Cohen, Andrew Manuel Crespo, Christine Desan, Kristen E. Eichensehr, Benjamin Eidelson, Jared Ellias, Susan H. Farbstein, Noah Feldman, Jody Freeman, D. James Greiner, John Goldberg, Annette Gordon-Reed, Sheila Heen, Howell Jackson, Elizabeth Papp Kamali, Randall Kennedy, Michael Klarman, Adriaan Lanni, Eloise Lawrence, Richard Lazarus, Jill Lepore, Lawrence Lessig, Kenneth W. Mack, Bruce H. Mann, Martha Minow, Daniel Nagin, Alexandra Natapoff, Charles Nesson, Gerald L. Neuman, Ruth L. Okediji, Mariana Pargendler, Intisar A. Rabb, Richard M. Re, Daphna Renan, Mark J. Roe, Benjamin Sachs, Stephen E. Sachs, Larry Schwartztol, Joseph William Singer, Carol Steiker, Nicholas Stephanopoulos, Kristen A. Stilt, Ronald Sullivan, Cass R. Sunstein, Philip Torrey, Rebecca Tushnet, Dehlia Umunna, Rachel A. Viscomi, Laura Weinrib, Alex Whiting, David Wilkins, and Jonathan Zittrain.

Author: Alexandra Natapoff
Publisher: MIT Press
Published: 07/07/2026
Pages: 342
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.90lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.10w x 1.00d
ISBN: 9780262060431

About the Author
Alexandra Natapoff is Lee S. Kreindler Professor of Law at the Harvard Law School.

Guy-Uriel E. Charles is Charles J. Ogletree Jr. Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, where he also directs the Charles Hamilton Institute for Race and Justice.