Founding the Republic

This important library and classroom tool will make it easy for students to research and debate the core political ideas and issues of the founding period. The profound arguments regarding republicanism, federalism, constitutionalism, and individual rights come to life here, contextualized with introductory explanations to stimulate analysis and appraisal of the positions. Unique to this collection are documents relating to the establishment of constitutional governments in the original 13 states, debate over the Bill of Rights, and documents reflecting a variety of alternative voices, including letters and petitions from women and African-American and Native-American leaders. This presents a broader picture of the issues that confronted those who framed our government than has ever before been available. An advisory board of distinguished historians and teachers assisted Patrick with the selection of documents. This collection shows how the founding fathers arrived at consensus from the many conflicting viewpoints that characterized the debate on founding our extraordinary constitutional republic. The political debates on independence and original state constitutions are connected systematically to the subsequent debates on the ratification of the Federal Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Political grievances of dispossessed groups such as women, African Americans, and Native Americans, are connected to core ideas of the founding documents, such as the Declaration of Independence. Letters, petitions, sermons, court proceedings, Thomas Jefferson's notes, a selection of Federalist and anti-Federalist papers, even the Northwest Ordinance, are among the documents included. The work is organized topically into seven parts, each which is prefaced by an introductory essay which presents the main theme, ideas, and issues, and establishes a context for the documents that follow. Each document is preceded by an explanatory headnote, which includes questions to guide the reader's analysis and appraisal of the primary source. Each part ends with a select bibliography. A chronology of major events concludes the work. This collection is a basic research and debate tool that will be invaluable to school and public libraries and secondary school classrooms.

JOHN J. PATRICK is Director of the Social Studies Development Center and Professor of Education at Indiana University. A specialist in the history of the Founding Period, he is the author of more than 25 books on civic history education and a member of the Governing Body of the National Council for History Standards that prepared the National History Standards Project in 1994. In addition he served as chief consultant to the Agency for Instructional Technology in developing the prize-winning video program series on the U.S. Constitution for use in history classrooms and public television.

Series Foreword
Introduction
The Decision for Independence: Arguments For and Against Separation from Britain
Making Constitutions for the New American States: Debates on Models of Good Government, 1776-1780
Problems of Equality and Liberty in the New American States, 1776-1792
The Crisis of Government Under the Articles of Confederation, 1781-1787
The Federal Convention and the Constitution, 1787
Debate on the Constitution: Federalists versus Anti-Federalists, 1787-1788
The First Federal Congress and the Bill of Rights, 1788-1792
Appendix: Chronology of Key Events
Index