Revolutionary War Costume Party and Book Launch

On Tuesday, we’ll be celebrating the launch of A.J. Jacobs’ new book The Year of Living Constitutionally with a candlelit salon like ye olden days. We’ll be dressing up in Revolutionary War and Regency-era gear (costumes encouraged but not required). Each guest will receive a gift bag of party favors, which include a pocket-sized Constitution, a goose quill pen carved by Jacobs and ink pot. We’ll be serving Martha Washington’s Rum Punch, Jacobs’ son is going to bake Colonial-era desserts, and there will be a live music performance of a surprisingly modern Mozart quartet written about the same time as the Constitution. (Outfit Tip: Revolutionary War accessories and outfits are easy to find on Amazon and good enough for us, although you’ll learn from A.J., they are not respected on the re-enactment battlefields).

Jacobs, a New York Times bestselling author and journalist, will don his tricorn hat, Patriot coat and musket. Michelle Young, Untapped New York’s founder will fulfill her dream of wearing a Regency dress, and Justin Rivers, Untapped New York’s Chief Experience Officer, will have on a tricorn hat, jabot and cuffs. The three will be in conversation about The Year of Living Constitutionally, a book that explores with great humor, humility, and perceptiveness what it means to follow the Constitution literally and what consequences this has in actual practice.

Jacobs took it up on himself to live as closely as possible to the original meaning of the Constitution for a whole year. In the book, and throughout his yearlong exploration, he grappled with important national questions, like what does the Constitution mean today, 235 years after it was written? Should we follow the document precisely and exactly, as the Originalist argue? Or do some things need to be updated? If Jacobs could embody and get into the minds of the Founding Fathers, perhaps it might reveal something more visceral about the contested Constitution.

The Year of Living Constitutionally successfully alternates between hilarious, witty anecdotes of Jacobs’ attempts to live like the eighteenth-century Founding Fathers, and well-researched analyses of the Constitution. Jacobs does not shy away from sharing his own political beliefs, but as a journalist, is looking for evidence to contradict his own tenets. In a time when the nation has become sharply divided over free speech and other Constitutional rights (my own friend group withstood Covid and the 2016 election, only to have a schism over free speech in 2023), I found The Year of Living Constitutionally a breath of fresh air.