The Year That Changed Everything

The Atlantic
Criticizing the Founders is in vogue these days, but what they did was extraordinary.
6:30 AM ET
The Atlantic
In 1788, We the People of the United States ordained a Constitution to “secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.” It was the year that changed everything. Yet for the past century, posterity has profoundly misunderstood what happened then—who did what, why they did it, and how, and also what they failed to do that needed doing.
Much of the confusion began in 1913, when the American historian Charles Beard published his muckraking blockbuster,
An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States, the 20th century’s most influential work of constitutional scholarship. Beard portrayed the Constitution’s leading drafters as moneymen lining their own pockets and those of their elite confreres. In Beard’s account, George Washington and company were Gilded Age robber barons avant la lettre, fat cats rigging the rules for themselves and other one-percenters.

Related Keywords

New York ,United States ,United Kingdom ,Rome ,Lazio ,Italy ,Philadelphia ,Pennsylvania ,Washington ,Switzerland ,Greece ,Americans ,America ,Greek ,American ,British ,Swiss , ,Supreme Court ,Articles Of Confederation ,American Revolution ,Greek Republics ,American Historian Charles Beard ,George Washington ,Conomic Interpretation Of The Constitution United States ,Best Seller ,Ew Generation Of Americans ,Ersonal Finances Of Various Federalists ,People Of The United States ,Perfect Union ,Tronger Legislature ,Eards Account ,Onstitutions Democratic Pretensions ,Iggest Fact ,Ersonal Finances Of The Founders ,Constitution ,General Washington ,Erbs Of The Document ,Est Criticisms Of The Philadelphia Draft ,Tronger Executive ,Last Century ,Ndivisible Union ,Large Army ,Ordinary Folk ,Common Defense ,British Armies ,Opular Historian Howard Zinn ,Proposed Constitution ,Rdinary New York Elections ,Deep South ,Bvious Meaning Of The Subject ,Americas Declaration ,Eal Bicameral Legislature ,Beard ,Onstitutions Draftsmen ,Imperial Rome ,Political Violence ,Tronger Judiciary ,Evolutionary State Constitutions ,American People ,Closed Doors ,Ini Problems ,Achilles Heel ,Est State Governments ,Efenders Of National Security ,European Powers ,Big Losers ,Ld Unicameral Congress ,Ontinental Legal Blueprint ,புதியது யார்க் ,ஒன்றுபட்டது மாநிலங்களில் ,ஒன்றுபட்டது கிஂக்டம் ,ரோம் ,லேஸியோ ,இத்தாலி ,பிலடெல்பியா ,பென்சில்வேனியா ,வாஷிங்டன் ,சுவிட்சர்லாந்து ,கிரீஸ் ,அமெரிக்கர்கள் ,அமெரிக்கா ,கிரேக்கம் ,அமெரிக்கன் ,பிரிட்டிஷ் ,சுவிஸ் ,உச்ச நீதிமன்றம் ,கட்டுரைகள் ஆஃப் கூட்டமைப்பு ,அமெரிக்கன் புரட்சி ,