BOOK REVIEW
Decision in Philadelphia: The Constitutional Convention of 1787
by Christopher Collier and James Lincoln Collier 1986
About the Authors
Christopher Collier earned his PhD at Columbia University. He was the official Connecticut State Historian from 1984 to 2004 and is now professor of history emeritus at the University of Connecticut. He is the brother of co-author James Lincoln Collier.
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About the Book
The Colliers summarize the events that led up to the Convention and feature major bios of ten delegates, e.g. of Washington, Madison, Hamilton, Pinckney and minor bios of another fifteen delegates. They document the importance of the convention rule that any item could at any time be readdressed. Without this rule the Convention would have collapsed in the first week. They detail how Madison managed to keep Pinckney’s competing plan out of the eventual historical limelight, despite the fact that much of Pinckney’s plan ended up in the final product and how a series of compromises and back room deals gave the smaller states equal status in the Senate and kept them from walking out.
The book’s 23 chapters include titles such as:
America in 1787,
The Mind of James Madison,
The Unbelievable George Washington,
Madison Plans a Government,
Alexander Hamilton and the British Model,
Roger Sherman and the Art of Compromise,
William Paterson Picks a Fight,
James Wilson, Democratic Nationalist,
Elbridge Gerry’s War Against the Army,
George Mason and the Rights of Man
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Access this book for online reading or download for offline reading. Subscribers can access more than 100 books:
biography, economics, history, philosophy, religion, & science. New titles added frequently.
Endorsements
The Library Journal states,
“Highly recommended…It is the best popular history of the Constitutional Convention available…Modern readers will find the authors’ comments on the Constitution particularly interesting, casting many of the Founding Fathers in a new light.”
This book’s popularity is demonstrated in the fact that its Amazon rank is #227 in the “United States Local Government” category. Customer Reviews rate it an average of 4 out of 5 stars.
Additional Reading
The following is a list of 5 other books of note on this topic:
1 The Summer of 1787: The Men Who Invented the Constitution by David O. Stewart
2 America’s Constitution: A Biography by Akhil Reed Amar
3 Miracle At Philadelphia: The Story of the Constitutional Convention May – September 1787 by Catherine Drinker Bowen
4 The Framers’ Coup; The Making of the United States Constitution by Michael J. Klarman
5 The Anti-Federalist Papers and the Constitutional Convention Debates by Ralph Ketcham
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