The Men Who Made the Constitution: Lives of the Delegates to the Constitutional Convention [Hardcover]

Few events in the history of the United States were of greater consequence than the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Although most histories have focused on the issues and compromises that dominated the debates, the exchanges were also shaped by the dynamic personalities of the fifty-five delegates who attended from twelve of the thirteen states.

In The Men Who Made the Constitution, constitutional scholar John R. Vileexplores the lives and contributions of all delegates to the 1787 Constitutional Convention, including those who left before the Convention ended and those who stayed until the last day but refused to sign. Each biography records the delegates birth, education, previous positions or public service roles, homes, family life, life after the Convention, death, and resting place. Drawing directly from Convention debates and a vast array of secondary sources, Vile covers the positions of each delegate at the Convention on both major and minor issues and describes his service on committees and afterward at state ratification conventions.

The Men Who Made the Constitution includes a bibliography of key sources, engravings of delegates for whom portraits were created, a quiz on key facts, and a transcript of the Constitution of the United States. This work is the perfect reference for students and scholars, as well as professional and amateur historians, of colonial and early American history, constitutional law, and American jurisprudence.

John R. Vile is professor of political science and dean of the University Honors College at Middle Tennessee State University, and he is the author and editor of dozens of books on the U.S. Constitution and related matters including The Constitutional Convention of 1787: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Americas Founding, The Encyclopedia of the First Amendment, The Encyclopedia of the Fourth Amendment, and The Writing and Ratification of the U.S. Constitution: Practical Virtue in Action.

Vile prevlC7