Listen:
Availability:
Sorry, this programme is not available to listen again. (why?)
Last broadcast on Tue, 4 Nov 2008, 21:15 on BBC Radio 3.
Synopsis
Susan Hitch presents a special Night Waves Landmark debate celebrating the US Constitution.
The US Declaration of Independence remains to this day one of the most poetic and resonant of all political documents. A panel of guests - recorded at the 2008 Free Thinking festival in Liverpool - including novelist and essayist Andrew O'Hagan as well as Florida State University's Diane Roberts, asks if America still honours its founders commitment to 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness'.
The US Constitution
BROADCASTS FROM THE FREE THINKING FESTIVAL
The US Constitution
As America goes to the polls we explore the founding documents of the United States, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
America celebrates its birthday every year on the Fourth of July, 1776. The war of Independence was over and won and on that day the wording of the Declaration of Independence was approved by Congress.
But the new nation was a full eleven years old, in 1787, well into the age of reason, before it had a Constitution which gave permanent legal and formal structure to the government which was to affect that safety and happiness. But how well did the Constitution express the founding fathers’ commitment to ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ and does it still honour it today?
Broadcast
-
Tue 4 Nov 200821:15
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~39~RS~){kind=small}