Plain, Honest Men

The Making of the American Constitution

By: Richard Beeman

Narrated by: Michael Prichard

The Constitutional Convention affected nothing less than a revolution in the nature of the American government. Led by James Madison, a small cohort of delegates devised a plan that would radically alter the balance of power between state and national governments, and then sprung that idea on a largely unsuspecting convention. The success of this bold and brilliant strategy was, however, far from assured, and the ultimate outcome of the delegates' labors---the creation of a frame of government that would enable the fragile American union to flourish---turned out to be very different from that which Madison had originally envisioned. In fact, there was very little agreement among the framers about the nature of the government they had just created.

Audiences will come to appreciate the challenges that the Founding Fathers faced in creating a form of government that, while imperfect in many respects, nevertheless approaches, in the words of Benjamin Franklin, "so near to perfection as it does."

©2008 Richard Beeman (P)2009 Tantor

Return to the truth

respect lost in modern times.return to needs of the people.Best system in the world.

very well written

A fantastic look into the inner workings of the Constitutional Convention and the minds of the men behind it.
Fascinating and detailed, gave me a much clearer picture of the machinations around the 4 month process that ended with the Constitution.
Enjoyable in every way, took a subject that could be very boring and kept it interesting.
It's no page turning murder mystery, but very enjoyable in its own right

Fascinating Telling of Important Story

This is the way history needs to be told. Even though I knew the ending, I was on the edge of my seat.
Michael Prichard is my favorite reader. He could read the phone book and it would be good.

Detailed Examination

Where does Plain, Honest Men rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This audio-book easily rates among my top 5 listening experiences.

What other book might you compare Plain, Honest Men to and why?

I don't really have a non-fiction book to compare it to since it is a day by day account.

Any additional comments?

The experience of the Revolutionary War is obviously still fresh in the minds of the attendees and probably accounts for their difficulties with Executive Power.

Thorough and entertaining.

I really enjoyed this story of the creation of the constitution. The debates between the founding fathers were fascinating and the narrator is great.