Essays on the Making of the Constitution

"For nearly two centuries, scholars have argued over the framing of the U.S. Constitution. Were its framers enlightened, disinterested statesmen seeking to rescue a nation drifting toward anarchy, or were they conspiratorial representatives of a rising financial and industrial capitalism? Some believed that the political conflict surrounding the creation of the Constitution was fought between men of nationalist principles and advocates of states' rights; others upheld that it was a clash between an aristocratic elite and the localist forces of democratic majoritarianism. This highly-acclaimed collection of essays, edited by eminent constitutional historian Leonard W. Levy, brings together a wide range of viewpoints on the roles, motivations, and aspirations of the Founding Fathers of the Constitution. With an expanded introduction and a new concluding chapter on the Bill of Rights by the editor, the second edition includes Charles Beard's historic Economic Interpretation of the Constitution, as well as the contemporary scholarship of Forrest McDonald, Robert E. Brown, and John P. Roche, among others. This anthology offers new interpretations of the driving forces of the men who forged the principal document of the American legal system"--Unedited summary from book cover.