Scan barcode
the_library_of_larry's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
3.5
Michael Klarman has written what must surely be close to an exhaustive volume on the failure of the Articles of Confederation and the making of the Constitution, as well as the political machinations needed to make the Constitution law across the states.
While I will always appreciate an author going deep into the research weeds to provide non-fiction and history readers with accurate info, I can't help but feel that there should be a book that covers the exact topics here in the Framer's Coup, but does it in half the time. I listened to the Audible audiobook version of this book. It clocked in at 33 hours, one of the longest audiobooks I have in my library. At 1.90 speed, it totaled to over 16 hours of listening time.
The problem with such minute details as private correspondences between founding fathers, the records of debates before, during, and after the Philadelphia convention, the political leanings of individuals and states, the economic considerations of federalization, and so many other topics, is that the reader starts to lose the forest for the trees (or perhaps, the author has). I can barely remember a single thing that was said in this book because I was so fried by detail that things started to mush together. I am fortunate that I was able to retain general concepts and answers to the questions I had that caused me to start this book.
If you want answers, they are here, but buried among mountains of background information and political infighting. It's genuinely a shame, because Klarman is obviously passionate about this topic. I don't deny that such an important topic as the writing of the Constitution does not deserve an impressive volume that covers it. But for someone who isn't actually a professor of constitutional history, or is a lawyer in constitutional law, this book is likely not for you. It's too detailed, and unless you have a particularly overriding interest in 1780s American politics/economics/society, the fascinating events of the formation of the Constitution will be lost to you among the detail.
A slight recommend for me ONLY IF you really, really are interested in this topic, so much so that it's your job to know about con law. Or if you're just that much a nerd about constitutional history.
While I will always appreciate an author going deep into the research weeds to provide non-fiction and history readers with accurate info, I can't help but feel that there should be a book that covers the exact topics here in the Framer's Coup, but does it in half the time. I listened to the Audible audiobook version of this book. It clocked in at 33 hours, one of the longest audiobooks I have in my library. At 1.90 speed, it totaled to over 16 hours of listening time.
The problem with such minute details as private correspondences between founding fathers, the records of debates before, during, and after the Philadelphia convention, the political leanings of individuals and states, the economic considerations of federalization, and so many other topics, is that the reader starts to lose the forest for the trees (or perhaps, the author has). I can barely remember a single thing that was said in this book because I was so fried by detail that things started to mush together. I am fortunate that I was able to retain general concepts and answers to the questions I had that caused me to start this book.
If you want answers, they are here, but buried among mountains of background information and political infighting. It's genuinely a shame, because Klarman is obviously passionate about this topic. I don't deny that such an important topic as the writing of the Constitution does not deserve an impressive volume that covers it. But for someone who isn't actually a professor of constitutional history, or is a lawyer in constitutional law, this book is likely not for you. It's too detailed, and unless you have a particularly overriding interest in 1780s American politics/economics/society, the fascinating events of the formation of the Constitution will be lost to you among the detail.
A slight recommend for me ONLY IF you really, really are interested in this topic, so much so that it's your job to know about con law. Or if you're just that much a nerd about constitutional history.
adamvolle's review against another edition
5.0
This book will test just how much you really want to know about how the US Constitution was written.
mattrohn's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
3.0
It's a really informative book and you'll learn a ton about the development of the constitution but it's such a slog to get through.
markk's review
5.0
The drafting and ratification of the Constitution of the United States is one of the most heavily mythologized parts of American history. For many people, what happened in Philadelphia was nothing less than a divinely-inspired blueprint for a national government, with the wise men who created it lionized as the "Founding Fathers" with all of the majesty implied by the use of the capital letters. Though this image has not gone unchallenged, it's endurance reflects its patriotic usefulness, an example of the national exceptionalism of which Americans are so proud.
Michael Klarman's book offers a very different view of the creation of our nation's governing document. Drawing upon a vast range of contemporary writings, he argues that the creation of the Constitution was driven by fears for the effects of democracy on economic policy. The key concern was debt. During the American Revolution the states and the Continental Congress had accumulated an enormous amount of debt in their fight against the British. Though the United States had won the war, in its aftermath the country was plunged into a severe economic depression that exacerbated the economic problems of thousands of Americans. Pressured by high taxes to service the debts, voters in several states elected officials who pursued a variety of measures designed to ease tax burdens and make debts easier to pay off, many of which threatened to destabilize national unity.
It was concerns over this which Klarman sees as driving the push for a new national governing structure. As he explains, the government provided in the Articles of Confederation lacked authority to address the problem, and was itself virtually prostrate from the burden of debts and the lack of any reliable means of paying them off. For many of the people behind the push for a stronger national government, the heart of the problem lay with the disproportionate power possessed by the smaller states, which enjoyed equal representation in the Confederation Congress. It was this problem which James Madison's Virginia Plan sought to address by creating a new legislature with power residing in a lower house with representation apportioned by population. His efforts to bully the delegates from the smaller states failed, though, and after a compromise was reached establishing an upper legislative house that maintained the principal of equal state representation, the desire of Madison and his allies to empower the embryonic government waned considerably. It was a fortuitous failure, though because such were the concerns of many people about the final document that even with all of the advantages the Constituion's advocates possessed, ratification was a close-run thing, with the support of the smaller states (who never would have gone along with a structure that would have diminished their representation to the degree Madison proposed) decisive to its success.
Deeply researched and clearly argued, Klarman's book is a masterpiece of historical writing. While his argument echoes the one famously advanced by [a:Charles A. Beard|109323|Charles A. Beard|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1359049344p2/109323.jpg] in his book [b:An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States|187702|An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States|Charles A. Beard|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1418788262l/187702._SY75_.jpg|181422], Klarman makes a more convincing case by nuancing his arguments in ways that acknowledges the complex range of factors involved. Contingency is at the heart of his tale, as he shows the interplay of arguments and how decisions played off of each other in ways that determined the outcome. It makes for an origin story for the Constitution that is more akin to the grimy details of sausage making than the high-minded debates of demigods, but it is one that is truer to the reality of politics than we would like to admit. For that reason alone it is essential reading for anyone interested in learning about the history of our country's founding or how our national government came to be what it is today.
Michael Klarman's book offers a very different view of the creation of our nation's governing document. Drawing upon a vast range of contemporary writings, he argues that the creation of the Constitution was driven by fears for the effects of democracy on economic policy. The key concern was debt. During the American Revolution the states and the Continental Congress had accumulated an enormous amount of debt in their fight against the British. Though the United States had won the war, in its aftermath the country was plunged into a severe economic depression that exacerbated the economic problems of thousands of Americans. Pressured by high taxes to service the debts, voters in several states elected officials who pursued a variety of measures designed to ease tax burdens and make debts easier to pay off, many of which threatened to destabilize national unity.
It was concerns over this which Klarman sees as driving the push for a new national governing structure. As he explains, the government provided in the Articles of Confederation lacked authority to address the problem, and was itself virtually prostrate from the burden of debts and the lack of any reliable means of paying them off. For many of the people behind the push for a stronger national government, the heart of the problem lay with the disproportionate power possessed by the smaller states, which enjoyed equal representation in the Confederation Congress. It was this problem which James Madison's Virginia Plan sought to address by creating a new legislature with power residing in a lower house with representation apportioned by population. His efforts to bully the delegates from the smaller states failed, though, and after a compromise was reached establishing an upper legislative house that maintained the principal of equal state representation, the desire of Madison and his allies to empower the embryonic government waned considerably. It was a fortuitous failure, though because such were the concerns of many people about the final document that even with all of the advantages the Constituion's advocates possessed, ratification was a close-run thing, with the support of the smaller states (who never would have gone along with a structure that would have diminished their representation to the degree Madison proposed) decisive to its success.
Deeply researched and clearly argued, Klarman's book is a masterpiece of historical writing. While his argument echoes the one famously advanced by [a:Charles A. Beard|109323|Charles A. Beard|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1359049344p2/109323.jpg] in his book [b:An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States|187702|An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States|Charles A. Beard|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1418788262l/187702._SY75_.jpg|181422], Klarman makes a more convincing case by nuancing his arguments in ways that acknowledges the complex range of factors involved. Contingency is at the heart of his tale, as he shows the interplay of arguments and how decisions played off of each other in ways that determined the outcome. It makes for an origin story for the Constitution that is more akin to the grimy details of sausage making than the high-minded debates of demigods, but it is one that is truer to the reality of politics than we would like to admit. For that reason alone it is essential reading for anyone interested in learning about the history of our country's founding or how our national government came to be what it is today.