Myth of the Month 16: The Founding Fathers
Historiansplaining: A historian tells you why everything you know is wrong
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An Economic Interpretation of the United States Constitution
The public is more emotionally invested in ideas about the so called founding fathers than they are in anything else in american history except the civil war. A lot of academic debate over the past century has revolved around different receptions of a book the historian charles beard published in 19 13 that looked at the economic interpretation of the united states constitution. And he finds that most of the delegates were fairly wealthy who came from the upper strata of society as it existed in the wake of the revolution. They tended to be hold ers of personality, meaning movable, transferable property. So they weren't necessarily large landholders, but they tended to hold a lot of personality,. especially government stocks and
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