The Birth of the Republic, 1763-89
Edmund S. Morgan, The Birth of the Republic, 1763-89 (Chicago University Press, 2013)
Summary: The most recent edition of an excellent primer on the American Founding period. Explains the tensions and the pressures, the trends and crises, with the keen eye of a veteran historian.
Key Quote: "The members of the convention were much more aware of the national danger, much more eager to see their efforts succeed, than were the rest of the population. They knew, as their constituents could not, that each provision of the new Constitution was the outcome of extended discussion, of mutual forbearance, concession, compromise, the result of a combined desire to protect the nation without excessive injury to local interests." - p. 145
Bottom Line: Read this book for a refresher on the quarter-century from Revolution to Constitution.
