A Child of Fortune: A Correspondent’s Report on the Ratification of the U.S. Constitution and Battle for a Bill of Rights

In this exciting audio production, prize-winning journalist and historian Jeffrey St. John simulates day-by-day reportage to make you a firsthand witness to the 1787–1788 political battle to ratify the US Constitution. Discover how close both sides of the debate came to resorting to violence and rigged elections and witness Patrick Henry’s challenge to a pistol duel at the Virginia convention. Observe the Constitution’s sanction of slavery and the delegate revolts it produced, Massachusetts Governor John Hancock’s secret deal to deliver his state in return for support of his candidacy for the presidency, and how the soft-voiced James Madison defeated America’s greatest orator.

Vastly entertaining, this book is both a popular history and an important contribution to the study of the founding of the American Republic.

© 2007 Blackstone Publishing (Audiobook): 9781481578325

Release date

Audiobook: 1 January 2007