This course is an intensive study of the constitutional convention which took place in Independence Hall in Philadelphia between May 25 and September 17, 1787, the months-long struggle following the Convention over ratification of the Constitution, and the creation of the Bill of Rights in the First Congress under the new Constitution. The main texts for the course will be James Madison's Notes of the Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787, The Federalist Papers, selected anti-Federalist writings, and the Constitution itself.