Creating the Constitution

Creating the Constitution, Volume 1, by Thornton Anderson offers a scholarly reexamination of the foundational moments in American political history. This work of constitutional history focuses on the Convention of 1787 and the subsequent First Congress through a meticulous reading of Farrand's Records and the Annals of Congress. Anderson provides a critical perspective on the Framers while examining how Court Whig influence shaped the Federalists.

The text identifies a distinct third group known as the state Federalists, positioned between the nationalists and the states' righters. This study of United States constitutional history argues that the First Congress may have distorted the original aims of the Convention. As a significant contribution to the study of politics and government, Creating the Constitution, Volume 1, serves as a detailed analysis of the United States Constitutional Convention and the early federal government during the late eighteenth century.