Trade Paperback
1986 · New York
by Bowen, Catherine Drinker; Burger, Warren E. (foreword)
New York: The American Past / Book of the Month Club, 1986. Reprint. Trade Paperback. Near Fine. 5x1x8. Chappell, Warren. Reprint. Remainder mark. 1986 Trade Paperback. xix, 346 pp. 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 voicesâThomas 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 interestsâthe big states against the little, the slave states against the anti-slave statesâin tension and anxiety that mounted week after week, they wrote out a working plan of government and put their signatures to it. (Inventory #: 2336854)