1783-1789

After the Revolutionary War established the independent United States of America, a different kind of revolution took place. Between Shays' Rebellion and the final flourish of a quill pen on the Constitution, the country's greatest leaders faced a challenge that would either keep the states together or tear them apart. From the roads of Boston to Independence Hall in Philadelphia, delegates battled out the particulars of how the new country would be governed. In this inspiring story of leadership, discover how diplomacy and compromise created a document that would defend the nation's freedom at once and for the future.

Examines the events leading up to the creation of the American Constitution and Bill of Rights. Includes a timeline, a glossary, a website for further information, and photographs.

The U.S. constitution was signed over two hundred years ago, and it still protects American citizens today. Using primary sources, young readers learn the story behind this American symbol from the people who were there.

An introduction to the history of United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

"The prizewinning author of Founding Brothers and American Sphinx now gives us the unexpected story--brilliantly told--of why the thirteen colonies, having just fought off the imposition of a distant centralized governing power, would decide to subordinate themselves anew. The triumph of the American Revolution was neither an ideological nor political guarantee that the colonies would relinquish their independence and accept the creation of a federal government with power over their individual autonomy. The Quartet is the story of this second American founding and of the men responsible--some familiar, such as George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison, and some less so, such as Robert Morris and Governeur Morris. It was these men who shaped the contours of American history by diagnosing the systemic dysfunctions created by the Articles of Confederation, manipulating the political process to force a calling of the Constitutional Convention, conspiring to set the agenda in Philadelphia, orchestrating the debate in the state ratifying conventions, and, finally, drafting the Bill of Rights to assure state compliance with the constitutional settlement"--.

Looks at the framing of the United States Constitution and its amendments through such primary source documents as speeches, records of the Constitutional Convention and similar meetings, and the documents themselves.

The author compares the intellectual understanding of the Enlightenment of Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson, and shows how the personal experiences and regional cultural traditions of each man shaped his interpretation of that movement and how those ideals played into the birth of the new nation.

This book describes the ratification of the U.S. Constitution in 1788 which played a seminal role in the founding of the new nation and continues to guide and shape modern life in the United States.