Unruly Americans and the Origins 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 too many middling Americans exercised too much influence over state and national policies. That the Framers were only partially successful in curtailing citizens’ rights is due to the reaction, sometimes violent, of unruly average Americans. If not to protect civil liberties and the freedom of the people, what motivated the Framers? In Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution, Holton presents the startling discovery that the primary purpose of the Constitution was, simply put, to make America more attractive to investment. And the linchpin to that endeavor was taking power away from the states and ultimately away from the people.

Prize history

• National Book Award for Nonfiction 2007 Finalist