Miracle at Philadelphia: the Story of the Constitutional Convention, May to September 1787 by Catherine Drinker Bowen

Miracle at Philadelphia: the Story of the Constitutional Convention, May to September 1787 by Catherine Drinker Bowen

"Remarkable...If you read only one book on the Constitution in your life, this could be it" (Los Angeles Times): the classic history of the Federal Convention at Philadelphia in 1787, the stormy, dramatic session that produced the most enduring of political documents, the Constitution of the United States.



From Catherine Drinker Bowen, noted American biographer and National Book Award winner, comes the canonical account of the Constitutional Convention recommended as "required reading for every American." Looked at straight from the records, the Federal Convention is startlingly fresh and new, and Mrs. Bowen evokes it as if the reader were actually there, mingling with the delegates, hearing their arguments, witnessing a dramatic moment in history.



Here is the fascinating record of the hot, sultry summer months of debate and decision when ideas clashed and tempers flared. Here is the country as it was then, described by contemporaries, by Berkshire farmers in Massachusetts, by Patrick Henry's Kentucky allies, by French and English travelers. Here, too, are the offstage voices--Thomas Jefferson and Tom Paine and John Adams from Europe.



In all, fifty-five men attended; and in spite of the heat, in spite of clashing interests--the big states against the little, the slave states against the anti-slave states--in tension and anxiety that mounted week after week, they wrote out a working plan of government and put their signatures to it.



"Bowen combines a storyteller's gift with the scholarship of a historian and brings to life both the people of the Constitutional Convention and the issues that they debated. Miracle at Philadelphia is a book for anyone interested in history, democracy, political science, or law." --Los Angeles Times

Catherine Drinker Bowen (1897-1973), a literary biographer, was one of the most well-known figures in the area. John Adams and the American Revolution and Yankee from Olympus, two of her best-known novels, have been acclaimed as accurate and sympathetic depictions of notable Americans.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780316103985
ISBN 10	0316103985
Title	Miracle at Philadelphia: the Story of the Constitutional Convention, May to September 1787
Author	Catherine Drinker Bowen
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Back Bay Books
Year published	1986-09-30
Number of pages	346
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.