A Brilliant Solution: Inventing the American Constitution |  | Author: Carol Berkin
Publisher: Mariner Books
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $5.98
as of 7/31/2010 21:50 CDT details
You Save: $8.97 (60%)
New (41) Used (49) from $5.25
Seller: books24seven
Rating:  16 reviews
Sales Rank: 8801
Media: Paperback
Pages: 320
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.3 x 1
ISBN: 0156028727
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.318
EAN: 9780156028721
ASIN: 0156028727
Publication Date: October 20, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
| |
| Features:
| • | ISBN13: 9780156028721 | | • | Condition: New | | • | Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed |
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
| |
| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
"The majority of historians seem to suggest that the founders knew just what to do--and did it, creating a government that would endure for centuries," writes CUNY historian Carol Berkin in the introduction to A Brilliant Solution. Sitting atop the pedestals we've placed them on, these figures would be "amused" by such notions, she says, because in reality the Constitutional Convention was gripped by "a near-paranoid fear of conspiracies" and might easily have succumbed to "a collective anxiety" over its daunting task. The story of the birth of the U.S. Constitution has been told many times, perhaps best by Catherine Drinker Bowen in Miracle at Philadelphia. Berkin's rendition of these well-known events is clear and concise. It does a bit more telling than showing, but this seems to be in the service of brevity--the main text is only about 200 pages. (Another 100 pages of useful appendices follow, including the full texts of the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution, plus short biographies of all the convention delegates.) Berkin is an opinionated narrator, unafraid, for instance, to call Maryland's Luther Martin "determinedly uncouth." She also points out that American government has evolved in ways that would make the founders cringe: they believed the presidency would be a ceremonial office (rather than the locus of the nation's political power) and that political parties were bad (when, in fact, they have served democracy well). Readers who want a sure-footed introduction to America's founding would do well to start here. --John J. Miller
Product Description
We know--and love--the story of the American Revolution, from the Declaration of Independence to Cornwallis's defeat. But our first government was a disaster and the country was in a terrible crisis. So when a group of men traveled to Philadelphia in the summer of 1787 to save a nation in danger of collapse, they had no great expectations for the meeting that would make history. But all the ideas, arguments, and compromises led to a great thing: a constitution and a government were born that have surpassed the founders'
greatest hopes.
Revisiting all the original documents and using her deep knowledge of eighteenth-century history and politics, Carol Berkin takes a fresh look at the men who framed the Constitution, the issues they faced, and the times they lived in. Berkin transports the reader into the hearts and minds of the founders, exposing their fears and their limited expectations
of success.
|
| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 16
 an engaging and important book March 31, 2004
gonolin
7 out of 9 found this review helpful
Civics class ranked among the most horrendous when I was a student, compared to art studio, gym or field biology. The Federalist Papers seemed like the most stultifying tome one could ever be force-fed. So why would anybody inflict a book on the Constitution upon themselves for fun?
The answer is, because it is the stuff of drama, crucial drama at that. It was not clear that the US would exist after breaking away from Britain, and certainly its lack of a constitution made its prospects seem even more unlikely. Additionally, the original colonies shared few ideals once they had vanquished their common foe. Berkin pulls together these complex forces, shows how they collided, and how a few prescient leaders were able to unite the disparate strands such that we have were able to stand up as a nation. Not a bad achievement in a mere 200-readable page book!
An educational easy read April 13, 2003
10 out of 15 found this review helpful
Normally, most books about the founding of our great nation are tedious to read. Carol Berkin lays out the facts about the constitutional covention and how the many players acted out the great task at hand. If you want an easy read about the writing of the constitution that will make you appreciate the difficulty of bringing 13 little nations into one world power this book is the place to start. Great biographies of the founders and copies of the articles of confederation and the constitution are included in the book.
Just what I was looking for, as it turned out June 15, 2010
J. L. Green (Decatur, AL USA)
This is a great book. For some unexplained reason I was not expecting it to be, but am so glad that I picked it up. This year I have done little besides read a brain-splitting amount of history pertaining to our Founding, from classic biographies of the major players to the Federalist Papers. One thing I could not seem to find, however, was an accurate & enlightening, but at the same time entertaining telling of what went on behind those locked doors and closed shades in Philadelphia so long ago. THis book delivered!
Truly fascinating is the fact that so few American readers realize that if you want drama & intrigue with your education, study the Founders, particularly the story of the creation of the Constitution. Berkin captures this masterfully--so masterfully that most of the time I truly felt as if I was in the room, seated next to Jemmy Madison as he observed history unfolding before his eyes. It is an unusually gratifying feeling when history & storytelling coalesce (as readers of McCullough, Ellis, & Ferling understand). It was my constant reaction to this book.
Let me not leave the impression that this book was light fluff. It is not. It is one of the most educational 200 page books I've read. This is a serious look at what a somewhat motley group of brilliant, passionate, opinionated Americans learned as they forced themselves to hammer out the greatest government in history, while the crisis of a quickly dissolving Confederation was pounding on the doors of Independence Hall.
I would like to have the book footnoted, because I know it was heavily & accurately researched. But I don't think that was Berkin's intention for this book, and she has a very full note on her sources in the back for those who want to dig deeper. Read this book.
Brilliant! July 27, 2010
K. LaFleur (Woodlands, TX)
A Brilliant Solution by Carol Berkin is an excellent history of the making of the Constitution. She starts near the beginning of the Revolutionary War and works through to the early 1800s. She also provides a short biography on each of the delegates and texts of the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution. Her analysis was very good; the book was very readable.
Amazing, truly amazing April 16, 2010
Eric Parker (Cambridge, MA USA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Amazing, truly amazing. This is a very readable, fantastic account of the creation of the Constitution of the Unites States. I learned so much from this book without feeling as though I was reading a textbook. If you are at all interested in the founding of The United States this book is a must read.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 16
|
|
|
