Charles A. Beard's An Economic Interpretation of the United States
Constitution was a work of such powerful persuasiveness as to alter
the course of American historiography. No historian who followed in
studying the making of the Constitution was entirely free from
Beard's radical interpretation of the document as serving the
economic interests of the Framers as members of the propertied
class. Forrest McDonald's We the People was the first major
challenge to Beard's thesis. This superbly researched and
documented volume restored the Constitution as the work of
principled and prudential men. It did much to invalidate the crude
economic determinism that had become endemic in the writing of
American history. We the People fills in the details that Beard had
overlooked in his fragmentary book. MacDonald's work is based on an
exhaustive comparative examination of the economic biographies of
the 55 members of the Constitutional Convention and the 1,750
members of the state ratifying conventions. His conclusion is that
on the basis of evidence, Beard's economic interpretation does not
hold. McDonald demonstrates conclusively that the interplay of
conditioning or determining factors at work in the making of the
Constitution was extremely complex and cannot be rendered
intelligible in terms of any single system of interpretation.
McDonald's classic work, while never denying economic motivation as
a factor, also demonstrates how the rich cultural and political
mosaic of the colonies was an independent and dominant factor in
the decision making that led to the first new nation. In its
pluralistic approach to economic factors and analytic richness, We
the People is both a major work of American history and a
significant document in the history of ideas. It continues to be an
essential volume for historians, political scientists, economists,
and American studies specialists.
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