On November 7-9, 1986, University of Massachusetts Amherst hosted a conference, organized by an advisory board of the Journal of American History and cosponsored by the Department of History at the University, entitled Constitutionalism in American Life. Papers presented at the conference were to be subsequently published in a special bicentennial issue of the Journal.

In the first of two sessions, historians examined the impact of the constitution on politics and government, foreign policy, race relations, and the economy, with papers presented by Morton Keller of Brandeis, Walter La Feber of Cornell, Derrick Bell of Harvard, and Donald Pisani of Texas A. & M. The second session discussed the impact on the constitution of popular struggles and the emergence of "rights consciousness". Papers were presented by Ellen Du Bois of SUNY-Buffalo, Eric Foner of Columbia, Mark Tushnet of Georgetown, Leon Fink of the University of North Carolina, Staughton Lynd of Youngstown, Martha Minow of Harvard, Carol Wisbrod of Connecticut, Kent Newmyer of Connecticut, and Thomas Haskell of Rice. Concluding observations were offered by Joyce Appleby of UCLA. Other participants included Harry Scheiber of the University of California-Berkeley, Hendrick Hartog of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, David Thelen, editor of the Journal of American History, and historians and legal scholars from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.