|
Decision in Philadelphia: The Constitutional Convention of 1787
 by Christopher and James Lincoln Collier
Reviewed by Bruce Lesh
Decision in Philadelphia provides an accessible and entertaining window into the motivations, personalities, debates, and compromises that defined the federal constitutional convention of 1787.
Although published more than twenty years ago, Christopher and James Lincoln Collier’s book remains one of the most readable popular histories of a transitional moment in the American experience. The Colliers, authors of the often-used novel of the American Revolution, My Brother Sam is Dead, create a popular telling of the Constitutional Convention. Focusing on the major personalities of James Madison, George Washington, Charles Pinckney, Roger Sherman, and Luther Martin, the authors weave the issues and debates of the convention with the personalities that promoted, opposed, debated, and compromised them. One word of caution: the authors’ approach to the convention, its product, and the participants perpetuated in Decision are more reverential than analytical — not unexpected given the date of its publication on the eve of the two hundredth Anniversary of the Constitutional Convention. Nevertheless, the pacing and readability of the text make it a wonderful instructional tool.Within a traditional American history course, the book can be used in several ways. The most obvious would be to have students read the book as a way of discussing the convention. The text also lends itself as a research tool for students who are preparing to represent one of the attendees in a class simulation of the convention. Chapter one, “A Nation in Jeopardy” works well as a counterpoint to the activities found in A More Perfect Union: Shaping American Government, published by the Choices Program at Brown University. The book is divided into four parts. Dividing the text so that students read either Part II: “The Large States and Small States,” Part III “The North and the South,” or Part IV, “The Question of Power,” reduces the quantity of student reading and facilitates a jigsaw discussion of the major issues that dominated the convention. Decision can be a welcome respite from the textbook, lectures, documentaries, or source work that so often dominates classroom instruction.
Though popular history presents certain pitfalls, it can still provide a dramatic entryway into the past for students. This book is a useful resource for classroom teachers looking for a different way to examine the personalities, issues, and results of the federal convention of 1787.
Leave a Reply
|
September 13th, 2007 at 8:59 am
No, I think David Stewart’s The Summer of 1787 (Simon & Schuster) is more readable and useful book for teaching the writing of the constitution.
September 17th, 2007 at 4:18 pm
Sounds as thought the Colliers have written an engrossing account of the Constitutional Convention, but I wonder if its tone (as described in Mr. Lesh’s review) isn’t too rosy. It is one thing to have reverence for the nation’s founders and the proceedings that produced the Constitution, but just as important is teaching critical thinking skills, and asking them to look at too often glorified events with a skeptical and discerning eye. Not sure if this book helps them do that.