MIT History Professor Pauline Maier discusses her book, *Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, 1787-1788*, which tells the dramatic story of the two-year debate over the ratification of the Constitution, filled with chicanery and statesmanship, drawing on the speeches and letters of founding fathers on both sides of the debate--the first new account of this seminal moment in American history in decades. Pauline Maier has devoted over a decade to studying the immense documentation of the ratification of the Constitution. *Ratification* tells the dramatic story of the yearlong battle to ratify it. When the delegates left the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in September 1787, the new Constitution they had written was no more than a proposal. Elected conventions in at least nine of the 13 states would have to ratify it before it could take effect. There was reason to doubt whether that would happen. In both cities and small towns across the country people read the document carefully and debated it passionately.