The Fathers of the Constitution: A Chronicle of the Establishment of the Union

Farrand, Max, 1869-1945Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 4.1

Word count: 324K words
Chapters: 33

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Fathers of the Constitution: A Chronicle of the Establishment of the UnionAuthor: Farrand, Max, 1869-1945,Language: English, Class: E300: History: America: Revolution to the Civil War (1783-1861), Release Date: Jan 1, 2002

Editor's review

This book is Max Farrand's popular chronicle of American constitutional history, focusing on the activities and political struggles of the framers during the establishment of the federal union. Using figures and events as its thread, it traces the key stages from after the Revolutionary War to the establishment of the federal union, helping readers understand how the American constitutional framework took shape through debate and compromise. As a public-domain e-book, its prose carries the style of early twentieth-century historical writing, with a coherent narrative and clear main thread, making it suitable as an introductory outline of early American political history. Readers should note its background of composition: its evaluations of the framers carry the coloration of its era, and it should be read alongside contemporary research rather than treated as the sole authoritative version.

Who it's for

A good fit for

General readers interested in American constitutional and founding history
Students and writers needing material on the constitutional background
English learners seeking to read public-domain historical works
Social science enthusiasts concerned with the origins of the federal system

Not a good fit for

Researchers needing contemporary academic annotations and source criticism
Readers who only want to read a Chinese translation
Readers expecting in-depth analysis of specific constitutional provisions and legal reasoning

Reading tips

First learn the basic timeline of the Constitutional Convention, then enter the book's chronicle narrative.
Organize the positions of major figures as you read, forming a concise chart of relationships.
After finishing, compare with the text of the U.S. Constitution and review the background of corresponding events in the book.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

What is the language and publication format of this book?

According to the data, this is an English-language public-domain e-book, labeled English and published by Project Gutenberg, with the publication year listed as 2019. It is a freely available electronic text.

Does the book focus on institutions or on people?

Judging from the title and classification, the book centers on "the Fathers of the Constitution" and tells the story of the establishment of the union, covering both the activities of individuals and the formation of institutions. It is a historical chronicle, not a specialized work of constitutional legal analysis.

What background knowledge is needed before reading?

Familiarity with the general situation of the Confederation period after the American Revolutionary War and the basic facts of the Constitutional Convention will make the narrative easier to follow. If unfamiliar with the figures and events, read a concise overview of early American history first.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Farrand, Max, 1869-1945 Author · American · 1869–1945

Max Farrand (1869–1945) was an American historian known for his work on American constitutional history. His most important scholarly contribution was editing The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, which systematically compiled the debates and documents of the Constitutional Convention and provided essential source material for later study of the making of the U.S. Constitution. His work The Fathers of the Constitution: A Chronicle of the Establishment of the Union, held in this collection, is written for general readers and narrates the establishment of the Union in chronological form, making it popular historical writing. Public information about the details of his life is limited, but both his editing and his writing center on the founding and constitution-making of the United States, and they continue to exert influence in this field.