Robert A. McGuire was born in Long Beach, California, and educated at Long Beach State and the University of Washington. A professor of economics at the University of Akron, he is the author of many studies that have appeared in academic journals, including the American Economic Review, American Journal of Political Science, Economic History Review, Journal of Economic History, and Public Choice. Among his mostrecent research is a study of the Confederate constitution appearing in Economic Inquiry and an ongoing study of the role of diseases in American economic history funded with a National Science Foundation grant in 2000.

• Prologue: A New Economic Interpretation 1: The Evolution of the Prevailing Interpretation 2: Economics and the Constitution Part I: The Philadelphia Convention of 1787 3: The Choice of Specific Clauses in the Constitution 4: Another Look at the Choice of Specific Clauses in the Constitution 5: The Choice of the Basic Design of the Constitution Part II: The Ratification of the Constitution, 1787-1790 6: The Overall Ratification Vote in the Nation 7: The Ratification Vote within Individual State Conventions Epilogue: The Lessons of 1787 and Ratification Appendixes Appendix 1: Documents Appendix 2: The Data and Their Sources Appendix 3: Full and Parsimonius Voting Models for the Philadelphia Convention Appendix 4: Personal-Interest and Constituent-Interest Voting Models for the Philadelphia Convention Appendix 5: Alternative Voting Model and Hypothesis Tests for Nationalism at the Philadelphia Convention Appendix 6: Voting Models for Pooled Samples of the State Ratifying Conventions Appendix 7: Voting Models for Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Virginia Ratifying Conventions Notes References Index

Robert McGuire's To Form a More Perfect Union is and will long remain the definitive study of the effect of economic influences on the drafting and ratification of the American Constitution