This superficial account advances the unoriginal thesis that "sectionalism and slavery are key to understanding" the Constitutional Convention. Goldstone (The Friar and the Cipher) recreates the convention, focusing in particular on four delegates: George Mason, a Virginia planter who ultimately refused to sign the Constitution; John Rutledge, a South Carolina lawyer and statesman; Oliver Ellsworth, a dour Connecticut attorney turned judge; and Roger Sherman, a Massachusetts native transplanted to Connecticut, who had risen from cobbler and almanac maker to respected politician. Sherman was the architect of the so-called Connecticut Compromise, which included the plan that states' representation in the House, but not the Senate, would be based on population. Goldstone rehearses the genesis of the three-fifths compromise (that for purposes of taxation and legislative apportionment, slaves would count as 3/5 of a person), the debate over the office of the president and the other key convention controversies. On the whole, Goldstone tells us nothing new. He insists that the framers were acting out of self-interest, not principle-an argument first advanced, with much more nuance, by the great historian Charles Beard in 1913. In short, this is the type of thin and derivative book that gives "popular history" a bad name. 30 b&w illus. not seen by PW. Agent, Henry Dunow. (Oct.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
On September 17, 1787, at the State House in Philadelphia, thirty-nine men from twelve states, after months of often bitter debate, signed America's Constitution. Yet very few of the delegates, at the start, had had any intention of creating a nation that would last. Most were driven more by pragmatic, regional interests than by idealistic vision. Many were meeting for the first time, others after years of contention, and the inevitable clash of personalities would be as intense as the advocacy of ideas or ideals. No issue was of greater concern to the delegates than that of slavery.
Lawrence Goldstone chronicles the forging of the Constitution through the prism of the crucial compromises made by men consumed with the needs of the slave economy. As the daily debates and backroom conferences in inns and taverns stretched through July and August of that hot summer-and as the philosophical leadership of James Madison waned-Goldstone clearly reveals how tenuous the document was, and how an agreement between unlikely collaborators-John Rutledge of South Carolina, and Roger Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut-got the delegates past their most difficult point. Dark Bargain recounts an event as dramatic and compelling as any in our nation's history . . .
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Lawrence Goldstone chronicles the forging of the Constitution through the prism of the crucial compromises made by men consumed with the needs of the slave economy. As the daily debates and backroom conferences in inns and taverns stretched through July and August of that hot summer-and as the philosophical leadership of James Madison waned-Goldstone clearly reveals how tenuous the document was, and how an agreement between unlikely collaborators-John Rutledge of South Carolina, and Roger Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut-got the delegates past their most difficult point. Dark Bargain recounts an event as dramatic and compelling as any in our nation's history . . .
Dark Bargain: Slavery, Profits, and the Struggle for the Constitution
On September 17, 1787, at the State House in Philadelphia, thirty-nine men from twelve states, after months of often bitter debate, signed America's Constitution. Yet very few of the delegates, at the start, had had any intention of creating a nation that would last. Most were driven more by pragmatic, regional interests than by idealistic vision. Many were meeting for the first time, others after years of contention, and the inevitable clash of personalities would be as intense as the advocacy of ideas or ideals. No issue was of greater concern to the delegates than that of slavery.
Lawrence Goldstone chronicles the forging of the Constitution through the prism of the crucial compromises made by men consumed with the needs of the slave economy. As the daily debates and backroom conferences in inns and taverns stretched through July and August of that hot summer-and as the philosophical leadership of James Madison waned-Goldstone clearly reveals how tenuous the document was, and how an agreement between unlikely collaborators-John Rutledge of South Carolina, and Roger Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut-got the delegates past their most difficult point. Dark Bargain recounts an event as dramatic and compelling as any in our nation's history . . .
Lawrence Goldstone chronicles the forging of the Constitution through the prism of the crucial compromises made by men consumed with the needs of the slave economy. As the daily debates and backroom conferences in inns and taverns stretched through July and August of that hot summer-and as the philosophical leadership of James Madison waned-Goldstone clearly reveals how tenuous the document was, and how an agreement between unlikely collaborators-John Rutledge of South Carolina, and Roger Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut-got the delegates past their most difficult point. Dark Bargain recounts an event as dramatic and compelling as any in our nation's history . . .
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Dark Bargain: Slavery, Profits, and the Struggle for the Constitution
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Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940176080360 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Tantor Audio |
| Publication date: | 12/14/2021 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
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