Robert A. McGuire – författare

This is a quantitative reexamination of the behavior of the Founding Fathers during the creation of the United States' Constitution. It employs cliometric analysis, formal economic analysis, and modern statistical techniques, to explain the choices the founders made during the drafting and ratification of the Constitution. These include: What form of government did the founders intend for the Constitution? What factors motivated them to adopt particular clauses in the Constitution? What factors led them to ratify the Constitution? The author argues that the findings challenge the prevailing interpretation of the formation of the Constitution.

This study, first published in 1985, aims to provide objective measures of the risks associated with various crops and livestock in the late nineteenth century and to examine two important issues in American economic history. Knowledge of these risks if a necessity to the profession, if analyses of the uncertainties of postbellum agriculture are to continue. Without this knowledge, assertions which have little or no empirical content will continue to be made. This title will be of great interest to students of economics and agriculture.