Detailed and compendious, Schools for Statesmen performs a valuable service. It breaks down every conceivable factor in categorizing the backgrounds of the fifty-five framers of the U.S. Constitution, who represented twelve states (Rhode Island boycotted the convention). Rather than simply analyzing eighteenth-century college life, Browning focuses at length on delegates who were largely self-taught in addition to those who had tutors or attended college, examining which group was the better prepared. That kind of boldness marks the strength of this book.
What about the college experience? Classes were small and students—who entered at various ages, between thirteen and eighteen––were keenly aware of each other’s class status at the outset. Browning draws clear distinctions among America’s oldest colleges (Harvard, Yale, and William and Mary), showing next how the later emergence of Princeton and King’s College (Columbia) liberalized learning. He engages with the relative significance of church affiliation for curriculum, the outsize...