You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
A classic history of the Federal Convention at Philadelphia in 1787, the stormy, dramatic session that produced the most enduring of political documents: the Constitution of the United States. 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...
Catherine Drinker Bowen was a Philadelphian with music in her veins.... Into this book she has crammed the joy, comedy, and desperation of a musical life. With the skill of a biographer she sums up the human equation in music with insatiable enthusiasm. She discourses on amateur quartets, fiddlers, wild-eyed cellists, wives who play violas and children who bang the box. This is a book which musicians will chortle over, a book which the layman will read with dawning delight.
Author reminisces about her experiences in research.
None
A true-life suspense story, "The Summer of 1787" takes readers into the sweltering room in which delegates struggled for four months to produce the flawed but enduring document that had come to define the nation, then and now.
In May 1787, in an atmosphere of crisis, delegates met in Philadelphia to design a radically new form of government. Distinguished historian Richard Beeman captures as never before the dynamic of the debate and the characters of the men who labored that historic summer. Virtually all of the issues in dispute—the extent of presidential power, the nature of federalism, and, most explosive of all, the role of slavery—have continued to provoke conflict throughout our nation's history. This unprecedented book takes readers behind the scenes to show how the world's most enduring constitution was forged through conflict, compromise, and fragile consensus. As Gouverneur Morris, delegate of Pennsylvania, noted: "While some have boasted it as a work from Heaven, others have given it a less righteous origin. I have many reasons to believe that it is the work of plain, honest men."
Franklin's character, genius, and interests are highlighted in a study of his myriad activities and pursuits
Plain speaking : an oral biography of Harry S. Truman, by Merle Miller. Catherine, Empress of all the Russias, by Vincent Cronin. Walt Disney:an American original by Bob Thomas. The Woman he loved by Ralph G. Martin.
In the first modern biography of Lord Mansfield (1705-1793), Norman Poser details the turbulent political life of eighteenth-century Britain's most powerful judge, serving as chief justice for an unprecedented thirty-two years. His legal decisions launched England on the path to abolishing slavery and the slave trade, modernized commercial law in ways that helped establish Britain as the world's leading industrial and trading nation, and his vigorous opposition to the American colonists stoked Revolutionary fires. Although his father and brother were Jacobite rebels loyal to the deposed King James II, Mansfield was able to rise through English society to become a member of its ruling aristoc...