Young Patriots: The Remarkable Story of Two Men, Their Impossible Plan and the Revolution That Created the Constitution.(Book Review)

Young Patriots: The Remarkable Story of Two Men, Their Impossible Plan and the Revolution That Created the Constitution CHARLES CERAMI. Sourcebooks, $24.95 (368p) ISBN 1-4022-0235-0

This engaging if shallow history of the making of the Constitution salutes Madison and Hamilton as the leaders of a coterie of dynamic young men battling a sclerotic old guard to construct a vigorous national government. This interpretation is not quite borne out in the text. Hamilton played a secondary role, and the new Constitution was actually championed by such pillars of the old guard as George Washington, on whom the author lavishes much adulation. And there's the question of whether …