A narrative with all the drama of good fiction, this book is an accurate, day-by-day account of the pivotal event of American history--the 1787 Convention that drafted the Constitution. Transported to Philadelphia with fifty-five delegates from twelve states, the reader shares their four-month struggle to create a new framework of government to preserve a shaky Union. Written with the immediacy of vivid reporting, the book reverberates with great speeches for and against principles that today form the bedrock of American government. From the sometimes angry debates of men whose characters and motivations are revealed through their actual words and acts, readers will see the Constitution take form, vote by vote, clause by clause. The book also follows the delegates as they dine in Philadelphia's inns and taverns, meet to devise strategy, attend church, or sample the pleasures of the country's largest city. Readers will be left with a new understanding of the nation's beginnings and the closest thing to a sense of having been there.--From publisher description. "The making of the United States Constitution"--Jacket subtitle.