Describes how the Constitution came to be written and ratified. Also includes the full text of the document produced by the Constitutional Convention of 1787.

Recent movements such as the Tea Party and anti-tax "constitutional conservatism" lay claim to the finance and taxation ideas of America's founders, but how much do we really know about the dramatic clashes over finance and economics that marked the founding of America? Dissenting from both right-wing claims and certain liberal preconceptions, Founding Finance brings to life the violent conflicts over economics, class, and finance that played directly,...

The title, taken from the Great Seal of the United States (which is seen on the reverse side of the dollar bill), means "a new order for the ages". In this major new interpretation of the framing of the U.S. Constitution, Forrest McDonald brilliantly explains the philosophical origins from which this "new order" was born. McDonald deftly recreates the intellectual world of the amazing fifty-five men whose genius and passion gave to us the United States...

"New digital technologies and traditional historical investigation suggest that James Madison did not finish his famous Notes until after the Convention. The Notes are the most important, and most misunderstood, account of the 1787 Constitutional Convention. This biography of the Notes follows Madison as he created and then repeatedly revised a remarkable manuscript of American history. Originally a diary kept in part for the absent Thomas Jefferson,...

George Washington rescued the nation three times: first by leading the Continental Army to victory in the Revolutionary War, second by presiding over the Constitutional Convention that set the blueprint for the United States and ushering the Constitution through a fractious ratification process, and third by leading the nation as its first president. After the War of Independence, the states were no more than a loosely knit and contentious confederation...