Plain, honest men : the making of the American Constitution / Richard Beeman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Beeman, Richard R.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

United States. Constitutional Convention (1787).

United States.

Constitutional history--United States.

Constitutional history.

Physical Description:

xxvii, 514 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Random House, 2009.

Summary:

From distinguished historian Richard Beeman comes a dramatic and engrossing account of the men who met in Philadelphia during the summer of 1787 to design a radically new form of government. Beeman takes readers behind the scenes and beyond the debate to show how the world's most enduring constitution was forged through conflict, compromise, and, eventually, fragile consensus during a time when many Americans feared that a combination of financial distress and civil unrest would doom the young nation's experiment in liberty.

Contents:

Principal characters

The Constitutional Convention of 1787: a chronology

The crisis

The indispensable men of the Convention

The delay that produced a revolution

The Convention opens for business

A high-stakes gamble

"We the people" or "We the states"? Creating the American Congress

Imagining the American presidency

Counterattack

"We are now at full stop"

The Fourth of July, 1787

Compromise: large states, small states, slave states, and free states

Beyond the Connecticut Compromise

"The people are the King"

Fashioning a first draft of the Constitution: July 27 - August 6

Revising the Constitution: August 6-31

The "general welfare" and the presidency

"The paradox at the nation's core"

A fragile consensus: Sep 10-15

Sep 17: Day of decision

The People's Constitution: "Federalists" seize the initiative

Achieving a more perfect union: the Federalists prevail

"A Republic, if you can keep it"

Full list of delegates to the Constitutional Convention of 1787

U. S. Constitution (Sep 17, 1787), Article I-VII

A note about quotations.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [447]-448) and index.

ISBN:

9781400065707

1400065704

OCLC:

176952118