This book can be described in one word, AWESOME! Beard approaches history as a science and that is the way it should be talked about. Today we think history is simple; that is only because we simplify it. It gets complicated when we try to analyze it and make bold statements about it from opinions of the time and the general thought of the people of that time. Beard is a genius and a truly great writer of history. I am a high school student that is in love with American History and I am sure that any lover of history will enjoy this book as much as I am enjoying it this very moment. I admit, the price tag is a little hefty, but if you have the money, then spend it on this book!

I did not realize how slanted most of our texts on social subjects, history, and the like had become until I read again this masterpiece that was used 50 years ago to teach American History in my high school. For example, the authors endeavor to ferret out the causes of the Civil War and make clear the number of socioeconomic factors that were involved in the two entirely different ways of life in the North and South. They assign slavery its proper place, but point out that the slave trade had been outlawed and give figures on the number who were being freed. They tell what was known then about mechanized means of picking cotton that in a few more years would have eliminated slavery completely without the loss of more than 600,000 American lives. In this bright light of truth, Lincoln comes through as something less than the hero he is regarded as today.

At the least these two volumes will present facts that have not received balanced treatment for more than 30 years and stimulate your thinking...

This classic account of the the rise of american civilization has long been out of print. For any serious student of history, however, it is one that should be on every bookshelf. Beard takes an objective unvarnished approach to history, that is both refreshing and scholarly. Outstanding!

When I was in graduate school Charles Beard was one of the figures that everyone loved to trash, but no one had ever read. Professors and their nodding students constantly pointed at Beard as an example of "determinism" or "reductionism" - someone who used a method of analysis that they politically did not agree with. Unfortunately, the current trend in academic history is to scorn any theoretical analysis at all and instead embrace the fad of "post-modernism." In historical writing this means trying to get the subjects to speak for themselves and not to interject your voice or to pass any judgement or impose a grand theory over events - there is no absolute truth so how can you claim to have a true opinion they argue.

Charles Beard helped to found the American Historical Review and wrote The Economic Interpreation to the Constitution - which has put all books since in its shadow. The books that followed this first classic became widely read best sellers. Beard wrote a grand narrative history of the United States from its founding to the 1930's - something very few historians of today would even attempt.

Beard's work has been misunderstood and mischaracterized by people since the 1950's. Barrow's excellent book does a good job of identifying the real sources of Beard's framework and brings Beard's real thoughts back to life. I know of no other book that does this as well as Barrow's.

Scholars of today will profit from this book, because it will help them rediscover a method of analysis that is a useful tool to understanding not only the past, but today.

Beard's primary source of inspiration for his "economic interpretation" was James Madison's Federalist X. The economic intepretation is simple and logical, and can be summed up as follows:

Economic relations - > class structure -> social actors -> events -> economic relations

Economic relations - form the class structure of society - the social actors grow up inside of this structure - their actions and thoughts create the politics and state of society and also its culture and ideology - which in turn effect and can alter the economic relations

Hardly a reductionist theory - but one that takes on an organic life of its own. I believe this is an excellent theoretical view of social life and goes further than "post-modern" type theories which only focus on culture and ideology and are truly reductionist models, because they go no further than where they start.

If you are interested in serious history - history that goes beyond simply recounting events and biographies - you need a intellectual and theoretical underpinning that can be used as an interprative framework to understand what is behind the events that happen. This book will help you understand the thoughts of one man who did just that and was the most famous American historian of the first half of the 20th century. Hard to imagine a historian being truly famous, but he was. He was bigger than Stephen Ambrose during his time and was probably the most influential historian in American history. Only people close were Frederick Jackson Turner, Alfred Mayhan, or Henry Adams - and they were from the century before him.

This is a good book. Clear and concise.

The essays selected by Beard ( from the 1930s) are timeless. Emil Ludwig's analysis of the fallacies and ironies of war ('victory makes the winner poorer'), Bertrand Russell's explanation for the decline of lyric love poetry (in a civilization domionated by the machine, serious treatment of mere passion is impossible') and his prescription for the future ('we must learn to use the machine without worshipping it'), Heindrik van Loon's case demonstrating that slavery is more disasterous for the slave-holder than for the poor serf and destroys the states sponsoring it, along with perceptive insights into labor, science, business, family, religion, war and peace by leading thinkers and doers of the Machine Age help explain the modern world of the Information Age.

This book basically puts forward a theory that the founders just established the Constitution for their own personal economic gain. This book is well-researched, but its premise is totally flawed. Moreover, it tries to portray all of the founding fathers as self-serving and looking out for their own economic interests. It doesn't really explain why some of the wealthiest colonists and statesmen such as George Mason and Elbridge Gerry refused to sign on. Moreover, I'd recommend that any student of the Constitution, study the writings of James Madison and John Adams to answer these charges. I also recommend The Founder's Constitution set, edited by Phillip Kurland and Ralph Lerner. It is an excellent tool for examining original intent.

This book is only recommended for its historical value. The renowned constitutional scholar, Forrest McDonald, does an excellent job introducing this book and debunking its controversial charge towards the Constitution.

Beard's origional thesis form 1913 remains that the forming of the United States Constitution was an effort by the economic well-to-do of the newly formed American social class to establish a government that would protect their interests and raise the value of the government's obligations in their possessions. Beard's goal is simply to re-establish the idea of the aforementioned economic interests as the primary, not secondary cause of the U. S. Constitution. Through a topical analysis of interests, that seem contrary to the work of his historical mentors, Beard weaves his interpretation of the economic history. Throughout his book Beard consistantly refers to his work as fragmentary, but it appears extensively researched through primary documents such as the Federalist Papers, early Treasury Department records, and Madison's convension notes. Beard does an excellent job in presenting all necessary facts for the reader to follow his argument. Little, if any information is left to the supposition of the reader. Whereas the work can be dry at times, it does provide scholars with alternative, not necessarily new, interpretations of early American historical events.

Charles Beard's thesis held sway for decades --and was not attacked in a significant way until after his death in 1948. Major critics were Robert E. Brown (1956) and Forrest McDonald (1958). It should be noted that Charles Beard greatly angered the liberal Establishment in the 1940s with his strong criticism re how Franklin Roosevelt manipulated the US into World War II and provoked the Japanese to attack Pearl Harbor.

A new book due out in July 2002 -- Robert McGuire's "To Form A More Perfect Union: A New Economic Interpretation of the United States Constitution" will supposedly show that Beard was right re the Founding Fathers/Constitution and his critics were wrong.