A.J. Jacobs spent a year living by 1789 rules.
VIDEO: Author A.J. Jacobs on living according to the Constitution in his new bookAuthor AJ Jacobs spent a year examining the language and history of the U.S. Constitution and its amendments, occasionally carrying a musket while doing so, as detailed in his book "The Year of Living Constitutionally."
ABC NEWS LIVE: Our next guest is a New York Times bestselling author, journalist, lecturer and human guinea pig whose claim to fame is immersive journalism, always taking his curiosities to new heights: from attaining bodily perfection, thanking every single person involved in producing his morning cup of Joe to living biblically for a year. And he is still not finished.
But I never read the entire thing. And yet, every day, I'd read a news story about how this 230-year-old document was having a massive impact on how Americans live their lives. Still, that's the subject of heated debate and I thought, 'I need to understand what is the Constitution actually say? What does it mean?'
JACOBS: I do think it needs to evolve. Parts of, I think, that the ultimate the high level of its promises of equality, its promises of equal protection under the law, and the general welfare, these are wonderful principles that are timeless, but how we apply them needs to change. So I'm very grateful for that. I don't want to go back to the 18th century, but I also think that they had, they were very worried about monarchy and authoritarianism. So the idea -- the president was never supposed to be this powerful. The founders would be shocked, both Democrat and Republican.
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