A Brilliant Solution: Inventing the American Constitution

Historian Carol Berkin's A Brilliant Solution: Inventing the American Constitution is a rich narrative portrait of post-revolutionary America and the men who shaped its political future. "Just as the Constitution was a brilliant solution to the problems of the 1780s, Carol Berkin's book is a brilliant account of the making of that constitution. Written with great verve and clarity, it nicely captures all the contingency and unpredictability in the framing of the Constitution."--Pulitzer Prize-winning author Gordon S. Wood Though the American Revolution is widely recognized as our nation's founding story, the years immediately following the war -- when our government was a disaster and the country was in a terrible crisis -- were in fact the most crucial in establishing the country's independence. The group of men who traveled to Philadelphia in the summer of 1787 had no idea what kind of history their meeting would make. But all their ideas, arguments, and compromises -- from the creation of the Constitution itself, article by article, to the insistence that it remain a living, evolving document -- laid the foundation for a government that has surpassed the founders' greatest hopes. Revisiting all the original historical documents of the period and drawing from her deep knowledge of eighteenth-century politics, Carol Berkin opens up the hearts and minds of America's founders, revealing the issues they faced, the times they lived in, and their humble expectations of success.

About the Author :
CAROL BERKIN is the Presidential Professor of History at Baruch College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

Review :
ADVANCE PRAISE FOR A BRILLIANT SOLUTION "A story all modern Americans need to know--the exciting and true tale of our nation's origins, as narrated by one of our best historians."--Professor Mary Beth Norton, Cornell University "The liveliest and most concise account yet of the adoption of the Constitution. A sparkling, fast-paced, and always engaging introduction to the modern world's first great exercise in constitutional invention."--Jack N. Rakove, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of James Madison and the Creation of the American Republic