It's 1787, and a handful of men are about to sign the United States Constitution. In a few minutes, a newly free country will have a set of rules made by the people, for the people. Join lawmaker James Madison as he picks up a pen and makes history.

Describes the need for unification in a growing country and discusses the problems and decisions of the men who drafted the Constitution of the United States.

"How do Americans state what they believe in, how their representative government works, and more? By writing it down! Investigate great documents that have shaped United States history, including the U.S. Constitution. Find out who wrote it, what it says, and why it remains important today. Read all about this remarkable document that helped form a nation. Includes a support page of teaching tips for caregivers and teachers. Downloadable Teacher's...

In May 1787 delegates from across the country--including George Washington, James Madison, and Benjamin Franklin--gathered in Philadelphia and, meeting over the course of a sweltering summer, created a new framework for governing: the Constitution of the United States.

"An analysis by recently retired Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer that deconstructs the textualist philosophy of the current Supreme Court's supermajority and makes the case for a better way to interpret the Constitution"--

A whole new generation of patriots can be inspired by the memorable songs that explain how our government is set up and how the electoral process works. Plus, keep track of the actual voting results in all 50 states.

A concise history of the long struggle between two fundamentally opposing constitutional traditions, from one of the nation's leading constitutional scholars-a manifesto for renewing our constitutional republic. The Constitution of the United States begins with the words: "We the People." But from the earliest days of the American republic, there have been two competing notions of "the People," which lead to two very different visions of the Constitution. Those...

"The prizewinning author of Founding Brothers and American Sphinx now gives us the unexpected story--brilliantly told--of why the thirteen colonies, having just fought off the imposition of a distant centralized governing power, would decide to subordinate themselves anew. The triumph of the American Revolution was neither an ideological nor political guarantee that the colonies would relinquish their independence and accept the creation of a federal...

Average Americans Were the True Framers of the Constitution Woody Holton upends what we think we know of the Constitution's origins by telling the history of the average Americans who challenged the framers of the Constitution and forced on them the revisions that produced the document we now venerate. The framers who gathered in Philadelphia in 1787 were determined to reverse America's post—Revolutionary War slide into democracy. They believed...