In 1787, the American union was in disarray. The incompatible demands of the separate states threatened its existence; some states were even in danger of turning into the kind of tyranny they had so recently deposed.
A truly national government was needed, one that could raise money, regulate commerce, and defend the states against foreign threats-without becoming as overbearing as England. So thirty-six-year-old James Madison believed. That summer, the Virginian was instrumental in organizing the Constitutional Convention, in which one of the world's greatest documents would be debated, created, and signed. Inspired by a sense of history in the making, he kept the most extensive notes of any attendee.
Now two esteemed scholars have made these minutes accessible to everyone. Presented with modern punctuation and spelling, judicious cuts, and helpful notes-plus fascinating background information on every delegate and an overview of the tumultuous times-here is the great drama of how the Constitution came to be, from the opening statements to the final votes.
This Modern Library Paperback Classic also includes an Introduction and appendices from the authors.

Observing that intellectual changes within late-seventeenth-century Massachusetts Puritan culture closely paralleled changes within Puritan culture in England, Michael Winship re-examines one of the more nettlesome issues in the intellectual history of early New England. How did the logic Puritanism square itself with the increasingly hostile assumptions of the early Enlightenment? And, faced with a new intellectual world whose parameters were formed to a large extent in opposition to Puritanism, how did Puritans try to maintain credibility? In "Seers of God," Winship's compelling analysis of topics ranging from theology to witchcraft places the problem of intellectual change fully in a transatlantic context.

Making Heretics is a major new narrative of the famous Massachusetts disputes of the late 1630s misleadingly labeled the "antinomian controversy" by later historians. Drawing on an unprecedented range of sources, Michael Winship fundamentally recasts these interlocked religious and political struggles as a complex ongoing interaction of personalities and personal agendas and as a succession of short-term events with cumulative results. Previously neglected figures like Sir Henry Vane and John Wheelwright assume leading roles in the processes that nearly ended Massachusetts, while more familiar "hot Protestants" like John Cotton and Anne Hutchinson are relocated in larger frameworks. The book features a striking portrayal of the minister Thomas Shepard as an angry heresy-hunting militant, helping to set the volatile terms on which the disputes were conducted and keeping the flames of contention stoked even as he ostensibly attempted to quell them. The first book-length treatment in forty years, Making Heretics locates its story in rich contexts, ranging from ministerial quarrels and negotiations over fine but bitterly contested theological points to the shadowy worlds of orthodox and unorthodox lay piety, and from the transatlantic struggles over the Massachusetts Bay Company's charter to the fraught apocalyptic geopolitics of the Reformation itself. An object study in the ways that puritanism generated, managed, and failed to manage diversity, Making Heretics carries its account on into England in the 1640s and 1650s and helps explain the differing fortunes of puritanism in the Old and New Worlds.

"Challenging and compelling . . . spirited, skilled, clear-eyed revisionism. This bold probe into politics and personalities frees the 'free grace controversy' from interpretive convention. The episode's dynamic has never been so perceptively addressed. I was stunned by the new take on Thomas Shepard. Winship has a winner . . . a vanguard contribution to early American and Puritan studies. Read this one first!"--Michael McGiffert, Editor "Emeritus, William and Mary Quarterly"

""Making Heretics" places the so-called antinomian controversy that wracked Massachusetts in the late 1630s in a broad perspective that reveals new facets of this much-studied event. Michael Winship's knowledge of transatlantic Puritanism and his extensive research into hitherto untapped sources have combined to create a more comprehensive picture than that previously available to us."--Mary Beth Norton, Cornell University

"Those who believe that the basic knowable facts of the antinomian controversy already have been established, have not yet read "Making Heretics," Built upon the fullest canvass of the evidence yet achieved by any historian, Winship's new book offers the fullest critical reconstruction of early New England's most famed event, correcting or going beyond the standard accounts at many points."--Theodore Dwight Bozeman, University of Iowa

"This book is an impressive achievement. Winship writes crisply and lucidly, admirably portraying a world in acute flux. He has an enviable grasp of the range of acceptable disagreement among the godly in normal times and how that range could contract or even explode during a crisis. His research in both printed and manuscript sources is broad and deep. Hereads texts with great care and constructs important new chronologies in the process. The result is a compelling story and a fresh synthesis."--John Murrin, Princeton University

"It has been almost forty years since the last book-length account of the 'antinomian crisis' appeared. This one will be the definitive work. Based on sound and sophisticated evidence, it offers a new conceptualization and, beyond that, gives us a fresh interpretation of New England Puritanism and Puritan politics."--Frank Lambert, author of "Inventing the Great Awakening"

On fire for God-a sweeping history of puritanism in England and America Begun in the mid-sixteenth century by Protestant nonconformists keen to reform England's church and society while saving their own souls, the puritan movement was a major catalyst in the great cultural changes that transformed the early modern world. Providing a uniquely broad transatlantic perspective, this groundbreaking volume traces puritanism's tumultuous history from its initial attempts to reshape the Church of England to its establishment of godly republics in both England and America and its demise at the end of the seventeenth century. Shedding new light on puritans whose impact was far-reaching as well as on those who left only limited traces behind them, Michael Winship delineates puritanism's triumphs and tribulations and shows how the puritan project of creating reformed churches working closely with intolerant godly governments evolved and broke down over time in response to changing geographical, political, and religious exigencies.

Puritans did not find a life free from tyranny in the New World-they created it there. Massachusetts emerged a republic as they hammered out a vision of popular participation and limited government in church and state, spurred by Plymouth Pilgrims. Godly Republicanism underscores how pathbreaking yet rooted in puritanism's history the project was. Michael Winship takes us first to England, where he uncovers the roots of the puritans' republican ideals in the aspirations and struggles of Elizabethan Presbyterians. Faced with the twin tyrannies of Catholicism and the crown, Presbyterians turned to the ancient New Testament churches for guidance. What they discovered there-whether it existed or not-was a republican structure that suggested better models for governing than monarchy. The puritans took their ideals to Massachusetts, but they did not forge their godly republic alone. In this book, for the first time, the separatists' contentious, creative interaction with the puritans is given its due. Winship looks at the emergence of separatism and puritanism from shared origins in Elizabethan England, considers their split, and narrates the story of their reunion in Massachusetts. Out of the encounter between the separatist Plymouth Pilgrims and the puritans of Massachusetts Bay arose Massachusetts Congregationalism.

Anne Hutchinson was perhaps the most famous Englishwoman in colonial American history, viewed in later centuries as a crusader for religious liberty and a prototypical feminist. Michael Winship, author of the highly acclaimed "Making Heretics, Provides a startlingly new and fresh account of her of1-told tale, disentangling what really happened from the legends that have misrepresented her for so long. During the 1630s, religious controversies drove a wedge into the puritan communities of Massachusetts. Anne Hutchinson and other members began to speak out against mainstream doctrine, while ministers like John Cotton argued for personal discovery of salvation. The puritan fathers viewed these activities as a direct and dangerous threat to the status quo and engaged in a fierce and finally successful fight against them. refusing to disavow her beliefs. Hutchinson was put on trial twice-"first for slandering the colony's ministers, then for slandering the colony's ministers, then for heresy-"and banished from the colony. Combing archives for neglected manuscripts and ancient books for obscure reference, Winship gives new voice to other characters in the drama whose significance has not previously been understood. Here are Thomas Shepard, a militant heresy hunter who vigorously pursued both Cotton and Hutchinson; Thomas Dudley, the most important leader in Massachusetts after Governor John Winthroup; Henry Vane. A well-connected supporter of radical theology: and John supporter of radical theology: and John wheelwright, a bellicose minister who was a lightning rod for the frustrations of other dissidents. Winship also analyzes the political struggle that almost destroyed the colony andplaces Hutchinson's trials within the context of this turmoil. As Winship shows, although the trials of Anne Hutchinson and her allies were used ostensible to protect Massachusetts' Christian society, they instead nearly tore it apart. His concise, fast-moving, and up-to-date account brings puritan doctrine back into focus. giving us a much closer and more informed look at a society marked by religious intolerance and immoderation. one that still echoes in our own times. As long as governments take it upon them-selves to define orthodoxies of conscience. "The Times and trials of Anne Hutchinson will be required reading for students and concerned citizens alike.