Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution

by Woody Holton

First published 2008

Woody Holton overturns conventional wisdom about the Constitution's creation by focusing on the ordinary Americans who forced changes on the framers. The delegates who met in Philadelphia in 1787 wanted to roll back the democratic gains that followed the Revolutionary War. They felt that too many common citizens held too much sway over government policy. Holton shows that the framers succeeded only partially in limiting popular power because unruly Americans fought back, sometimes with violence. The author makes a striking argument that the Constitution's main goal was not protecting civil liberties but making America more appealing to investors. This required stripping power from state governments and from the people themselves. The same Americans who launched Shays's Rebellion and similar uprisings across the states ultimately shaped the Constitution we know today.

Genres: history, political-science, non-fiction, american-history

Vibes: thought-provoking

Tropes: historical-nonfiction

Setting: America, Philadelphia

Period: 1787, 19th-century

384 pages · Kindle Edition · Hill and Wang

More by Woody Holton

• American Promise Value Edition 4e V1 & Reading the American Past 4e V1 & Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass 2e & Defending Slavery
• The American Promise: A History of the United States, to 1877
• Understanding The American Promise V1 & U.S. War with Mexico & Black Americans in the Revolutionary Era
• Age of McCarthyism 2e & Black Americans in the Revolutionary Era & Hospital Sketches
• Liberty Is Sweet

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