Lectures For Lifelong Learners!

When delegates arrived in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787, most thought they were going to spend a few weeks tinkering with the Articles of Confederation and return quickly to their law firms, plantations, businesses, and families. They were shocked the first day when the Governor of Virginia read out a plan which called for eliminating the Articles and proposing an entirely new form of government. Some delegates left, never to return. No wonder Patrick Henry had refused to go in the first place, saying he smelled a rat. Sit through that long hot summer with them as those who stayed hammered out our essential document. Enter the furious debates that still echo in today’s politics. Examine the compromises that are under scrutiny even today.