Welcome back to the Ten Blocks podcast. This is Brian Anderson, the editor of City Journal.

Joining me on the show today is Myron Magnet, my predecessor as editor of City Journal, which he ran from 1994 through 2006.

Myron is the magazine's editor-at-large and a frequent contributor. He's here today, though, to talk about his sparkling new book, Clarence Thomas

and the Lost Constitution, and we're excited to bring our listeners a conversation about the life

and legacy of City Journal.

Joining us in the studio is Myron Magnet. Myron's the magazine's editor at large

these days, his former editor, and he's written a number of important books over the years.

Dickens and the Social Order in 1985, The Dream and the Nightmare, the 60s legacy to the

underclass in 1993, and in 2013, the Founders at Home. He's also the recipient of a National

Humanities Medal awarded in 2008. But we're here today to talk about his new book, Clarence Thomas,

and the Lost Constitution. It's published by Encounter Books, and you can find a link on our

website or buy it on Amazon.

Myron, thanks very much for joining us.

Such a pleasure to see you, as always, Brian.

So let's start with the second part of the title of your book, The Lost Constitution.

What do you mean by the Lost Constitution and how was it lost?

You describe in your opening chapter three waves or stages in the process going back to the 1870s.

Yeah, but let's remember that the Framers Constitution of 1787, Let's remember what that was.

The framers thought of a very limited government that because they were afraid that their

government could turn into an elective despotism.

So they wanted to make sure that the people who ran the government, who had the same human nature as everybody else, didn't turn from the servants of the people into their masters.

So limits, limits, limits. They wanted to leave people free to do what Jefferson said to pursue their own happiness in their own way in their

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