Beardsley, E.E.
Life and Times of William Samuel Johnson
,
LL.D
. New York, 1876. An old but still useful biography of the man and his era.
Bingham, Harold J.
History of Connecticut
. New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Co., 1862. A good, general history of the state.
Boardman, Roger Sherman.
Roger Sherman: Signer and Statesman
.
Philadelphia, 1938. A classic biography of one of Connecticut’s great historical personalities.
Bowen, Catherine D.
Miracle at Philadelphia
:
Constitutional
Convention
. Little, Brown, & Co., 1966. A popular and readable account of the convention. Students should enjoy this type of history.
Brown, William C.
The Life of Oliver Ellsworth
. DaCapo Press, 1970. A modern biography which may be the most useable to date.
Collier, Christopher.
Roger Sherman’s Connecticut
:
Yankee
Politics and the American Revolution
. Middletown: Wesleyan Univ. Press, 1971. By far the most authoritative account on our state’s role in the Philadelphia Convention of 1787. It blends scholarship and literary grace.
—————.
Roger Sherman: Puritan Politician
. New Haven: New Haven Historical Society, 1976. A stimulating collection of three essays on one of the greatest politicians of his era.
Farrand, Max.
Fathers of the Constitution
. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1921. An interesting and highly readable book on the Founding Fathers.
—————.
The Framing of the Constitution
. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1913. A classic narrative of the making of the Constitution by one of the leading authorities on the subject.
Croce, George C.
William Samuel Johnson, a Maker of the
Constitution
. New York, 1937. A brief but informative biography of Johnson.
Jensen, Merrill.
The New Nation
:
A History of the United
States During the Confederation 1781-1789. An indispensable work on the era of the Articles of Confederation. It is extremely well-written and balanced.
—————.
The Making of the American Constitution
. New York, 1964. Again, an authoritative compendium of the origins of the Constitution by a leading scholar in the field.
Lettieri, Ronald J.
Connecticut’s Young Man of the Revolution
:
Oliver Ellsworth
. Hartford, 1978. A concise biography of Ellsworth.
Madison, James.
Notes of the Debates in the Federal Convention
of 1787
. New York, 1966. A day-to-day narrative account by the “Father of the Constitution.”
McCaughey, Elizabeth P.
From Loyalist to Founding Father
:
The Political Odyssey of William
Samuel Johnson
. New York, 1980. An insightful analysis of the man and his motives.
McLaughlin, Andrew C.
The Confederation and the Constitution
. New York, 1966. A concise and highly readable summary of the turbulent years following the American Revolution.
Rommel, John G.
Connecticut’s Yankee Patriot: Roger Sherman
. Hartford, 1980. A brief but useful summary of Sherman’s life, it is based a good deal on Collier’s work.
Rossiter, Clinton.
1787: The Grand Convention
. New York, 1966. A probing analysis of the men and the issues that resulted in the creation of our Constitution.
Van Doren, Carl.
The Great Rehearsal
. New York, 1948. A lucid and well-written account of the convention by a leading historian.
Van Dusen, Albert E.
Connecticut
. New York; Random House, 1961. A comprehensive history of the state. It is especially useful in the chapters dealing with the colonial era.
