With his simulated day-by-day reportage, prize-winning journalist-historian Jeffrey
St. John makes you an eyewitness to the 1787-1788 political battle to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
And what a battle it was! Listeners will discover how the Federalists sought to stamp the states into
early ratification with violence and rigged elections; how close some Anti-Federalists came to opposing
the new Constitution with armed force; how the Bill of Rights was born and the price Federalists had to
pay to save the new Constitution from certain defeat. Described here is Massachusetts Governor John
Hancock's secret deal to deliver his state in return for support of his candidacy for the presidency, the
Constitution's sanction of slavery and the delegate revolts it produced, Patrick Henry's challenge to a
pistol duel at the Virginia convention, and how the soft-voiced James Madison defeated America's greatest
orator.

Vastly entertaining, based on documented and newly-available sources, this book is both a popular history
and an important contribution to the study of the founding of the American Republic. U.S. Supreme Court
former Chief Justice Warren Burger avers, "this book and its companion Constitutional Journal should
be required reading to graduates from high school."

San Francisco's Jeff Riggenbach has narrated more than fifty titles for Blackstone Audiobooks. He is an author, contributing editor, and producer and has worked in radio for the last thirty years. He is a recipient of the "Golden Mike" Award for his work in radio.