bitchy | Book publishers see increased demand for print copies of the US Constitution

We’re almost at the “First 100 Days” mark of Trump 2.0 — yes, it’s only been 100 days, sorry for the reminder — and even Fox News polling can’t hide the fact that Americans hate everything he is doing. (If only the Democratic candidate had laid out in detail that this is what Trump would do if reelected. Oh wait, that’s exactly what she did…) Trump, Musk, DOGE, Project 2025, et al. are swiftly executing the undoing of our government. I think it’s fair to say this is the most dire test of the American experiment that this country has ever faced (despite whatever delusions George Clooney espouses). So while the marauders are hacking away at our government, it seems citizens have been motivated to reacquaint themselves with exactly what the government is supposed to look like in the first place. Book publishers say that print copies of founding documents like the Declaration of Independence and US Constitution are “selling at their fastest pace” in 20 years:

On Wednesday, Random House announced that it would publish a hardcover book in July combining the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, followed in November by a hardcover edition of the Federalist Papers. Both books include introductions by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Jon Meacham, who has written biographies of Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson, among others.

The Random House volumes, released through its Modern Library imprint, will join a prolific market that has surged in recent months. According to Circana, which tracks around 85% of the print retail market, editions of the Declaration of Independence, the Federalist Papers and the U.S. Constitution are selling at their fastest pace since Circana began compiling numbers in 2004.

Around 162,000 combined copies have sold through mid-April, compared to 58,000 during the same time in the early months of Trump’s first term, in 2017, more than double the pace of 2016.

Brenna Connor, a book industry analyst for Circana, said the jump “is likely in response to the recent change of administration” and cited increased interest in other books about democracy and government, among them Timothy Snyder’s “On Tyranny” and the Michael Lewis-edited “Who Is Government?” a collection of essays about civil servants by Dave Eggers, Geraldine Brooks, Sarah Vowell and others.

“This pursual of political understanding is playing out in a few different areas,” Connor added.

Meacham, during a phone interview with The Associated Press, said that the founders had sought to make sense of a revolutionary era — whether breaking with England or debating how to form a federal government with enough power to rule effectively, without giving it the kind of monarchical authority that enraged the colonies.

Reading the Declaration and other texts, he believes, can give today’s public a similar sense of mission and guiding principles.

“It is a tumultuous moment … to put it kindly,” Meacham said. “One way to address the chaos of the present time, what Saint Paul would call the ‘tribulations’ of the present time, is to re-engage with the essential texts that are about creating a system that is still worth defending.”

…“We generally see increased sales of editions of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution every election cycle, but particularly this year,” said Shannon DeVito, Barnes & Noble’s senior director of book strategy. “This could be because next year marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence,” she said, “or the fast and furious current political conversations and policy changes.”

[From AP News via AOL]

Hallelujah — news of Americans buying books instead of banning them. I’m so buoyed by this reporting! My only quibble is that I wish Random House would get their first release out sooner than July, because it would make a wonderful graduation gift. I’m a sucker for a beautiful hardcover, so that combined with the civic zeal of this moment may prompt me to indulge in the Declaration—Constitution combo volume. And I do believe I have a scathingly brilliant idea: you know how drag queens do storytime at libraries to read to little kids? Well, I’d like to do the same thing for grown ups and have drag queens read us the Constitution. Come on, you know it would be a fabulous celebration of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness! And most certainly a more perfect union of patriotic citizens than that which is currently in the Gold/White House.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that reading is power, and dissent is patriotic.