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Summary
Fifty-five men met in Philadelphia in 1787 to write a document that would create a country and change a world: the Constitution. Here is a remarkable rendering of that fateful time, told with humanity and humor. Decision in Philadelphia is the best popular history of the Constitutional Convention; in it, the life and times of eighteenth century America not only come alive, but the very human qualities of the men who framed the document are brought...
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Lexile Measure
1710L
Summary
You are there, in 1787, at America's constitutional convention, with the inside story that reads like a modern-day account of the secret proceedings in Philadelphia. Veteran print and broadcast journalist Jeffrey St. John "reports" each day's proceedings, flavoring his dispatches with quotes from private correspondence and notes of the delegates.
He captures the frustration, conflict, hope, and despair of America's founders during that long,
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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...
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Summary
The successful creation of the Constitution is a suspense story. This book takes us into the sweltering room in which delegates struggled for four months to produce the flawed but enduring document that would define the nation. George Washington presided, James Madison kept the notes, Benjamin Franklin offered wisdom and humor at crucial times. At different points, more than half of the delegates threatened to walk out, and some actually did. It was...
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Summary
Historian Carol Berkin's A Brilliant Solution: Inventing the American Constitution is a rich narrative portrait of post-revolutionary America and the men who shaped its political future.
"Just as the Constitution was a brilliant solution to the problems of the 1780s, Carol Berkin's book is a brilliant account of the making of that constitution. Written with great verve and clarity, it nicely captures all the contingency and unpredictability in...
Author
Summary
Historian Edward J. Larson recovers a crucially important--yet almost always overlooked--chapter of George Washington's life, revealing how Washington saved the United States by coming out of retirement to lead the Constitutional Convention and serve as our first president. After leading the Continental Army to victory in the Revolutionary War, Washington shocked the world: he retired. In December 1783, the most powerful man in the country stepped...
Author
Summary
A new biography of George Washington, centering on his return from retirement to lead the Constitutional Convention and secure the future of the United States.
George Washington rescued the nation three times: first by leading the Continental Army to victory in the Revolutionary War, second by presiding over the Constitutional Convention that set the blueprint for the United States and ushering the Constitution through a fractious ratification process,...