| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 91.4

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 91.4 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

To Form a More Perfect Union: A New Economic Interpretation of the United States Constitution. By Robert A. McGuire. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. xii, 395 pp. $39.95, ISBN 0-19-513970-4.)
Charles Beard was half right. In a broad sense, economic self-interest influenced both the Framers and the ratifiers of the U.S. Constitution (p. 8). But Beard's narrower claim that the Founders could be separated into "personalty" and "realty" classes was off the mark (p. 211). Or so says the economist Robert A. McGuire on the basis of his econometric analyses of voting patterns in both the Philadelphia convention and the state ratifying conventions.	1
McGuire's statistical tests of Beard's hypothesis are more powerful than any previously attempted. By using a multivariate statistical approach to roll call analysis, McGuire can determine the marginal influence of specific independent variables, for example, slave-holding, by holding constant other variables, including age, occupation, place of residence, security holding, and the like (p. 11). Vetted by the best minds in economic history (pp. vii–viii), McGuire's work is undoubtedly technically correct.	. . .

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