A review by gannent
Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution by Woody Holton

2.0

The author sets out to challenge our perceptions of the motivations of the Framers and the reasons behind the Constitution. He proposes that if it were not for ordinary citizens, that is, "Unruly Americans", the Constitution would not have half of the provisions that we hold dear. The great majority of the book is spent discussing the events and situation leading up to the Constitutional Convention. Not much is spent on the convention itself, ratification, or the aftermath. So the book is very economics-heavy, this was a little difficult for me since I'm not very familiar with economics. The focus was on debtors vs. creditors, and bondholders vs. taxpayers. There was a lot of discussion on monetary policy, were the Framers correct in thinking that the Constitution was the best was to help the economy, or would people have been better off with emissions of paper money like many demanded? Personally, I feel like this is the sort of book that requires a lot of thought and attention, not one that can be easily skimmed unless you're already very familiar with economics and this time period in history.