Constitutions of the United States and Nevada: Creation of the U.S. Constitution

• The American Constitution - A Documentary Record - this collection has dozens of documents, from the Magna Carta to the various Plans presented to and debated by the Convention deegates.
• Farrand's Records of the Federal Convention of 1787 - Primary source notes and letters from the Constitutional Convention.
  • A Concise Guide to the Records of the Federal Constitutional Convention of 1787 as a Source of the Original Meaning of the U.S. Constitution by Gregory E. Maggs.
• James Madison's Notes on the Debates in the Federal Convention.
• The Federalist Papers - read the essays arguing in favor of adopting the Constitution.

These links will lead you to Physical and Digital Books about the Constitution

• Constitutional Convention (1787) - These books are specifically about the Constitutional Convention and the men who were there.
• Constitutional History -- United States
• United States Constitution - The broadest book catalog subject heading. You will find several dozen library books and videos about the Constitution.

The American YAWP (a digital U.S. History text sponsored by Stanford University Press)

• See Chapter 6 - A New Nation for information regarding the Constitutional Convention, especially Sections III, IV and V.

EBSCO eBooks

• The Annotated U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence.
• The Federalist Papers - the classic set of essays arguing for the adoption of the Constitution.

Ebook Central

• Citizen's Constitution: an Annotated Guide.
• Origins of the Bill of Rights.

Reference Books

The databases listed in this Research Guide are available only to Truckee Meadows Community College students, faculty and staff. You will need your TMCC credentials (Username and Password) to access them off-campus.

• U.S. History in Context
  • Search for the phrase Constitution and the Bill of Rights to get background, academic journal articles, primary sources, and audio/visual material related to the creation of the Constitution.
  • The Overview of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights offers background and a summary of the Plans put forward during the Convention.
• EBSCO Articles
  • Philadelphia Story - This article discusses the 1787 U.S. Constitutional Convention and how the "issue of congressional representation was worked out." It is in the MasterFILE collection.
  • The Bill of Rights Nobody Wanted - A discussion of how the Bill of Rights came to be included in the Constitution. It is in the Academic Search Premier collection.
• JSTOR Articles
  • The Classical Ancestry of the United States Constitution - In-depth discussion of the influence of classical political theory on the convention delegates.
  • The United States Constitution as an Incomplete Text - an argument that the Constitution is an incomplete text, and how interpreting it requires studying related texts for context.
  • Republicanism and Slavery: Origins of the Three-Fifths Clause in the United States Constitution.