Books : The Summer of 1787: The Men Who Invented the Constitution
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by: David O. Stewart
List Price: $27.00Amazon.com's Price: $17.82 You Save: $9.18 (34%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 342.73029
EAN: 9780743286923
ISBN: 0743286928
Label: Simon & Schuster
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 368
Publication Date: April 10, 2007
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Sales Rank: 124008
Studio: Simon & Schuster
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
The successful creation of the Constitution is a suspense story. The Summer of 1787 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 -- then and now.
George Washington presided, James Madison kept the notes, Benjamin Franklin offered wisdom and humor at crucial times. The Summer of 1787 traces the struggles within the Philadelphia Convention as the delegates hammered out the charter for the world's first constitutional democracy. Relying on the words of the delegates themselves to explore the Convention's sharp conflicts and hard bargaining, David O. Stewart lays out the passions and contradictions of the often painful process of writing the Constitution.
It was a desperate balancing act. Revolutionary principles required that the people have power, but could the people be trusted? Would a stronger central government leave room for the states? Would the small states accept a Congress in which seats were alloted according to population rather than to each sovereign state? And what of slavery? The supercharged debates over America's original sin led to the most creative and most disappointing political deals of the Convention.
The room was crowded with colorful and passionate characters, some known -- Alexander Hamilton, Gouverneur Morris, Edmund Randolph -- and others largely forgotten. At different points during that sultry summer, more than half of the delegates threatened to walk out, and some actually did, but Washington's quiet leadership and the delegates' inspired compromises held the Convention together.
In a country continually arguing over the document's original intent, it is fascinating to watch these powerful characters struggle toward consensus -- often reluctantly -- to write a flawed but living and breathing document that could evolve with the nation.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Three Stars
This book was an exciting telling of the events of that wonderful summer. However, I would have prefered more analyse of the events rather than straight story telling. Also for a book subtitled "The Men Who Invented the Constitution" it gives only basic biographical information of the men. The author also did not use footnotes which made it difficult to track down further information. An example of this would be the author citing another persons work, "A scholar once said..." and it wouldnt be given ... Read More
Rating:  - Like Making Sausage
Twain once said that there are two things you don't want to see made - sausages and laws. This is certainly true for the making of our Constitution and Mr. Stewart takes the reader into the kitchen to see how it was made.
This is a riveting account of the Constitutional Convention in 1787 where a host of interesting characters muddled, blundered, compromised, posed, blustered and worked diligently to come up with what is considered the greatest work of republican government. It wasn't ... Read More
Rating: - A Fascinating Read on Many Levels
I took this book on my vacation to Hawaii and found that it was hard to put down. It was engaging, briskly written, and a fascinating insight into the men who wrote our Constitution, their biases, foibles, and prejudices drawn from the records, notes and letters of those involved. Author David Stewart spends a little time setting the historical context and then moves right into the topic. It helps to visit the America's most historic mile in Philadelphia to get a feel for what Stewart describes, but ... Read More
Rating: - History goes Mainstream
The Summer of 1787 adds nothing new to the mountains of work on the subject. However, this does not seem to be the intent of the author. Rather than add to a subject that has been analized inside out, Mr. Stewart attempts to bring History to a mainstream audience. The writing style is interesting and readable (more as a narrative with a cast of characters than as a scholarly work of History).
The Summer of 1787 reminds everyone that the Founding Generation was just human like the rest ... Read More
Rating:  - Excellent Analysis
The Summer of 1787 is quite simply a well written book. The author very skillfully presents both sketches of the participant personalities and the
events that transpired. If you want to know about the significant elements of the Constitution and how they were included, this is the book to read.
The author excels at explaining the impact of the subject of slave states
versus free states. What I wanted to do as a reader was visit the events
of the Constitutional Convention, learn what ... Read More
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