The Summer of 1787: The Men Who Invented the Constitution
Starred Review.Since Catherine Drinker Bowen'sMiracle at  Philadelphiaappeared in 1966, no work has challenged its classic  status. Now, Stewart's work does. Briskly written, full of deft  characterizations and drama, grounded firmly in the records of the  Constitutional Convention and its members' letters, this is a splendid  rendering of the document's creation. All the debates are here, as are all the  convention's personalities. It detracts nothing from Stewart's lively story to  point out that it's just that—a tale—and not an interpretation. Stewart, a  constitutional lawyer in Washington, D.C., ignores the recent decades'  penetrating scholarship about the Constitution's creation in favor of a  fast-paced narrative of a long, hot summer's work. Only one choice mars the  book. Stewart, like Bowen, wants us to see the four summer months as the only  period when the Constitution was created. But as James Madison and others  acknowledged soon afterward, the state ratifying conventions and the First  Federal Congress, which added the Bill of Rights, also contributed to the  Constitution as we know it. Stewart's excellent book will appeal to those  looking for descriptive history at its best, not for a fresh take on the  subject. B&w illus.(Apr.)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.