Rescuing the Republic: James Madison, the Annapolis Convention, and the Path to the Constitution

The first examination of how James Madison and the Annapolis Convention defied all odds and expectations to begin the near-impossible process of restructuring the federal government and worked to bring the republic back from the brink of collapse.

Although many books address the who, what, and why of the Constitution’s framing, not one explains the how of calling the Constitutional Convention—how a convention that seemed patently forbidden by the Articles of Confederation, and appeared so im...