WE THE PEOPLE
The Constitutional Convention and the Making of the American Republic, 1787By Jonathan Aldous Mercer
Length6h 6m
About this audiobook
The complete narrative history of the Constitutional Convention — Madison, Hamilton, Washington, the Federalist Papers, and the founding of the American republic in Philadelphia, 1787.
On June 15, 1787, William Paterson rose to present the small states' counter-proposal. The Convention was in deadlock. Several delegates had threatened to leave. Benjamin Franklin proposed sessions begin with prayer — the delegates declined, noting they had no chaplain and no funds to hire one. What saved the Convention was Roger Sherman of Connecticut: a self-educated shoemaker-turned-lawyer who proposed the bicameral solution giving large states proportional representation in the House and equal-state votes in the Senate, breaking the impasse that had threatened to end the republic before it began.
Historian Jonathan Aldous Mercer traces the full arc of the Constitutional Convention across 24 chapters: Shays' Rebellion and the crisis that forced the call to Philadelphia; Madison's Virginia Plan, drafted after he read every treatise on confederations from the Achaean League to the Dutch Republic; the Great Compromise; the Three-Fifths Compromise that embedded slavery into the republic's foundation; the ratification battles in Virginia and New York; and the Federalist Papers that James Madison and Alexander Hamilton produced to win public opinion.
Inside this Constitutional Convention history:
Shays' Rebellion — Massachusetts veterans who had fought at Valley Forge tried to seize the Springfield arsenal in January 1787, shocking reluctant states into sending serious delegations (Chapters 2-3)
Madison's Virginia Plan — a blueprint for a genuinely national government that Madison arrived with eleven days early, framing the entire summer's debate (Chapter 5)
The Great Compromise — Roger Sherman's bicameral solution to the large-state/small-state deadlock that had delegates threatening to walk out (Chapter 7)
Slavery and the Three-Fifths Compromise — how southern delegates shaped the Constitution's structure to protect slavery, the founding moral failure (Chapter 8)
The Federalist Papers and ratification — Madison and Hamilton's 85-essay argument for the Constitution, and the close battles in Virginia and New York (Chapters 13-15)
The founding of the American republic was a political invention without precedent — fifty-five men designing institutions for a future they couldn't foresee, in a Philadelphia July, with Washington's silent authority holding the room. Mercer's narrative American history traces the genius and the moral compromise of the framers, and the 240-year experiment their arguments produced.
For readers of David McCullough's 1776 and Ron Chernow's ALEXANDER HAMILTON.
Audiobook details
GenreHistory, Politics and Government
Length6 hrs 6 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Introduction
20Chapter 13: The Federalist Papers — Madison, Hamilton, Jay, and the Case for Ratification
2Author’s Note
21Chapter 14: The Anti-Federalists — The Opposition and Their Arguments
3Prologue: The Crisis of the Confederation
22Chapter 15: The Key State Battles — Virginia, New York, and the Close Calls
4PART ONE: THE CRISIS OF THE CONFEDERATION (1781-1787)
23Chapter 16: The Bill of Rights — The First Ten Amendments and the Promise That Clinched Ratification
5Chapter 1: The Articles of Confederation — What the First Government Lacked
24PART FIVE: THE FRAMERS
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6Chapter 2: Shays' Rebellion — Debt, Democracy, and the Alarm That Called the Convention
25Chapter 17: James Madison — The Father of the Constitution
7Chapter 3: The Call to Philadelphia — Madison's Vision and Washington's Reluctant Return
26Chapter 18: Alexander Hamilton — Nationalist, Financier, and Constitutional Visionary
8Chapter 4: The Delegates — Who Came to Philadelphia and What They Brought
27Chapter 19: George Washington — The Presiding Presence and the Indispensable Man
9PART TWO: THE GREAT DEBATES (MAY-SEPTEMBER 1787)
28Chapter 20: Benjamin Franklin — Wisdom, Compromise, and the Oldest Framer
10Chapter 5: The Virginia Plan — Madison's Blueprint for a Strong National Government
29PART SIX: LEGACIES
11Chapter 6: The New Jersey Plan — Small States, Large States, and the Fundamental Conflict
30Chapter 21: The Amendment Process — How the Constitution Changes
12Chapter 7: The Great Compromise — Bicameralism and the Connecticut Solution
31Chapter 22: Judicial Review — Marbury v. Madison and the Constitution's Living Interpretation
13Chapter 8: Slavery and the Constitution — The Three-Fifths Compromise and the Slave Trade
32Chapter 23: The Constitution in Crisis — Civil War, the New Deal, and Constitutional Stress
14PART THREE: THE STRUCTURE OF GOVERNMENT
33Chapter 24: The World's Oldest Written Constitution — America's Founding Document at 240 Years
15Chapter 9: The Presidency — Designing the Executive Power
34Epilogue: The Living Constitution
16Chapter 10: The Congress — Powers, Limits, and the Legislative Design
35Acknowledgments
17Chapter 11: The Federal Judiciary — The Supreme Court and the Judicial Article
36Selected Bibliography
18Chapter 12: Federalism — State and National Power and the Balance Between Them
37About the Author
19PART FOUR: RATIFICATION AND ITS BATTLES
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