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
2Author’s Note
3Prologue: The Crisis of the Confederation
4PART ONE: THE CRISIS OF THE CONFEDERATION (1781-1787)
5Chapter 1: The Articles of Confederation — What the First Government Lacked
Show all chaptersShow less
6Chapter 2: Shays' Rebellion — Debt, Democracy, and the Alarm That Called the Convention
7Chapter 3: The Call to Philadelphia — Madison's Vision and Washington's Reluctant Return
8Chapter 4: The Delegates — Who Came to Philadelphia and What They Brought
9PART TWO: THE GREAT DEBATES (MAY-SEPTEMBER 1787)
10Chapter 5: The Virginia Plan — Madison's Blueprint for a Strong National Government
11Chapter 6: The New Jersey Plan — Small States, Large States, and the Fundamental Conflict
12Chapter 7: The Great Compromise — Bicameralism and the Connecticut Solution
13Chapter 8: Slavery and the Constitution — The Three-Fifths Compromise and the Slave Trade
14PART THREE: THE STRUCTURE OF GOVERNMENT
15Chapter 9: The Presidency — Designing the Executive Power
16Chapter 10: The Congress — Powers, Limits, and the Legislative Design
17Chapter 11: The Federal Judiciary — The Supreme Court and the Judicial Article
18Chapter 12: Federalism — State and National Power and the Balance Between Them
19PART FOUR: RATIFICATION AND ITS BATTLES
20Chapter 13: The Federalist Papers — Madison, Hamilton, Jay, and the Case for Ratification
21Chapter 14: The Anti-Federalists — The Opposition and Their Arguments
22Chapter 15: The Key State Battles — Virginia, New York, and the Close Calls
23Chapter 16: The Bill of Rights — The First Ten Amendments and the Promise That Clinched Ratification
24PART FIVE: THE FRAMERS
25Chapter 17: James Madison — The Father of the Constitution
26Chapter 18: Alexander Hamilton — Nationalist, Financier, and Constitutional Visionary
27Chapter 19: George Washington — The Presiding Presence and the Indispensable Man
28Chapter 20: Benjamin Franklin — Wisdom, Compromise, and the Oldest Framer
29PART SIX: LEGACIES
30Chapter 21: The Amendment Process — How the Constitution Changes
31Chapter 22: Judicial Review — Marbury v. Madison and the Constitution's Living Interpretation
32Chapter 23: The Constitution in Crisis — Civil War, the New Deal, and Constitutional Stress
33Chapter 24: The World's Oldest Written Constitution — America's Founding Document at 240 Years
34Epilogue: The Living Constitution
35Acknowledgments
36Selected Bibliography
37About the Author
More from Jonathan Aldous Mercer
MotherlandJulia Ioffe17h 52m4.7 (2.5K)$40 · $0.00
Where Cowards Go to DieBenjamin Sledge8h 42m4.7 (351)$20 · $0.00
The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America (Annotated)Howard Irving Chapelle, Tappan Adney13h 9m4.8 (150)$0.99 · $0.00
RevolutionariesSanjeev Sanyal11h 23m4.6 (2.6K)$29 · $0.00
We Crossed a Bridge and It TrembledWendy Pearlman6h4.6 (5.2K)$24 · $0.00
Unbroken Bonds of BattleJohnny Joey Jones8h 31m4.6 (2.6K)$8 · $0.00
The Daughter of AuschwitzTova Friedman, Malcolm Brabant7h 54m4.6 (16.7K)$26 · $0.00
Lily's PromiseLily Ebert, Dov Forman8h 54m4.6 (16.1K)$29 · $0.00
Saving My EnemyBob Welch9h 11m4.6 (2.3K)$20
On Democracies and Death CultsDouglas Murray10h 38m4.6 (6.5K)$29 · $0.00
Across the RiverKent Babb11h 40m4.6 (927)$29 · $0.00
The Red Record (Annotated)Ida B. Wells-Barnett5h 19m4.8 (102)$0.99 · $0.00
Balcony Over Jerusalem: A Middle East Memoir - Israel, Palestine and BeyondJohn Lyons12h 37m4.6 (1.4K)$33 · $0.00
The Fire Next TimeJames Baldwin2h 25m4.6 (159.1K)$15
EnduranceAlfred Lansing6h 1m4.6 (40.8K)$20
BeyondStephen Walker15h 39m4.6 (3.2K)$33 · $0.00
Kings and PawnsHoward Bryant10h 9m4.6 (678)$29 · $0.00
No EscapeNury Turkel9h 30m4.6 (809)$28 · $0.00
Jubal Stone: U.S. Marshal: Blood Trail To Hell: A Western Adventure NovelCasey Nash3h 42m4.6 (3.2K)$18 · $0.00
Fall and RiseMitchell Zuckoff17h 23m4.6 (9.8K)$40 · $0.00
HostageEli Sharabi5h 25m4.6 (10.8K)$24 · $0.00
Pardon of Innocencethe Author, Lieutenant General Michael T. Flynn (Ret.)6h 23m4.8 (190)$23
KrantikariSanjeev Sanyal11h 44m4.6 (1.3K)$16 · $0.00
Unbroken Bonds of BattleJohnny Joey Jones8h 31m4.6 (2.6K)$8 · $0.00
On Democracies and Death CultsDouglas Murray10h 38m4.6 (6.5K)$29 · $0.00
Legally YoursManasi Chaudhari8h 52m4.7 (223)$29 · $0.00
Balcony Over Jerusalem: A Middle East Memoir - Israel, Palestine and BeyondJohn Lyons12h 37m4.6 (1.4K)$33 · $0.00
RiggedMollie Hemingway12h 48m4.6 (4.2K)$23 · $0.00
The Thomas Sowell ReaderThomas Sowell14h 51m4.6 (2.3K)$25
SledgehammerDavid Friedman8h 21m4.7 (589)$26 · $0.00
So You Want to Talk about RaceIjeoma Oluo7h 41m4.6 (146.2K)$17
Citizenship in a Republic (Annotated)Theodore Roosevelt2h 44m4.6 (1.4K)$2 · $0.00
No EscapeNury Turkel9h 30m4.6 (809)$28 · $0.00
In Defense of the Second AmendmentLarry Correia6h 50m4.6 (866)$17
Always FaithfulThomas Schueman, Zainullah Zaki12h 12m4.6 (977)$29 · $0.00
UnthinkableJamie Raskin15h 8m4.5 (9.3K)$8 · $0.00
The ManbookNick Freitas5h 43m4.7 (171)$24 · $0.00
My Fourth Time, We DrownedSally Hayden13h 59m4.6 (2.9K)$23 · $0.00
A Revolution of Common SenseScott Jennings9h 29m4.6 (528)$29 · $0.00
Statement From the Dock at the Rivonia TrialNelson Mandela2h 18m4.6 (1.3K)$1 · $0.00
You may also like
PutinomicsChris Miller8h 4m4.1 (437)$17
History of the Civil War: 1861-1865James Ford Rhodes15h 12m4.1 (695)$2 · $0.00
A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States CapitalJ. B. Jones38h 11m4.3 (517)$2 · $0.00
The Civil War: A Narrative, Vol. 3Shelby Foote58h 18m4.7 (15.1K)$30
The Return of George WashingtonEdward J. Larson11h 7m4.2 (3.3K)$29 · $0.00
The Civil War: A Narrative, Vol. 2Shelby Foote52h 41m4.6 (11.7K)$30
THE CIVIL WAR (Complete Edition)Julius Caesar7h 11m4.2 (8.4K)$2 · $0.00
The Life of George Washington (Summarized Edition)John Marshall13h 26m4.1 (309)$2
The Federalist Papers & Anti-Federalist Papers: Complete Edition of the Pivotal Constitution DebateAlexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay, Patrick Henry, Samuel Bryan22h 14m4.4 (7.7K)$2 · $0.00
To Rescue the ConstitutionBret Baier11h 39m4.4 (3.9K)$29 · $0.00
History of the American Civil War (Annotated)James Ford Rhodes16h4.1 (875)$2 · $0.00
Lincoln's LieutenantsStephen W. Sears31h 36m4.4 (1.1K)$53 · $0.00
Bloody SpringJoseph Wheelan14h 10m4.3 (600)$20
Life of Abraham Lincoln, Sixteenth President of the United StatesFrank Crosby13h 49m$2 · $0.00
The Campaign of 1776 around New York and BrooklynHenry Phelps Johnston18h 9m4.2 (47)$1 · $0.00
MOTHER JONES (Annotated)Mother Jones6h 36m$2 · $0.00
At the Edge of the PrecipiceRobert V. Remini4h 34m4.0 (337)$12
The Great Boer WarArthur Conan Doyle24h 14m3.9 (316)$2.30
A Handbook of the Boer WarAnonymous9h 16m3.8 (10)$2 · $0.00
The Citizen Soldier: Memoirs of a VolunteerJohn Beatty10h 26m4.2 (246)$1 · $0.00