Miracle at Philadelphia

Miracle at Philadelphia

By: Catherine Drinker Bowen

Joseph Winker

3/5/05

Miracle at Philadelphia is a book about the Constitutional Convention in the United States. The chapters are arranged in the order that the events happened during the convention. Mrs. Bowen, the author, made the events and the people of the convention seem more interesting than I thought they would be.

There are many things that I really enjoyed reading in my book. Some of those things would have to be just how accurate everything seemed to be. A good example of this would be how Mrs. Bowen put all of the dates and historical events into the arguments that were held in making the Constitution. Another thing that I liked was just how the author made me feel about all of the steps that took place in making the Constitution. For example in each chapter there was a different event, The chapters were split up in two sections, The Constitutional Convention and The Fight for Ratification. There were 25 chapters averaging 15 pages each. So as you can tell the author made a pretty intense summary of every event. She really made me realize just how hard these men had to work to make our country the way it is. I never knew just how amazingly smart the makers of the Constitution really were.

Some people would argue with me but I still can't find anything wrong with this book, except for one or two things. An example of these things would be just how hard it was to get "into" the book. The reason I say this is because it was just confusing. For example, on page 227 it says, "It was the old Revolutionary argument resurrected; Wilson had heard it often in the Continental Congress during the winter of higher law, a law above kings, princes and parliament. But in the Federal Convention, Wilson avoided the phrase "law of nature," preferring "the original powers of society." Immediately, Pierce Butler came out for ratification by nine states; he "revolted at the idea that one or two states should restrain the others from consulting their safety"

In my opinion I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the constitution, or the process in making it. I would not, however, recommend this book to anyone who is not "into"