Onstage at the Reagan Library with Bret Baier

Please join us on October 26th for a conversation and book signing with New York Times bestselling author and FOX News Chief Political Correspondent Bret Baier for his new book, To Rescue the Constitution: George Washington and the Fragile American Experiment (Publish Date: October 10, 2023). To reserve tickets and/or books, please click here.

George Washington rescued the nation and the Constitution three times: first by winning the Revolutionary War, second by presiding over the Constitutional Convention and ushering the Constitution through a fractious ratification process, and third by leading the nation as president in its first years. There is no doubt that the struggling new nation needed to be rescued.

After the victorious war, when a spirit of unity and patriotism might have been expected, instead the nation was broken. The states were no more than a loosely knit and contentious confederation, with no strong central union. They were in constant conflict. A frustrated Washington wrote to James Madison, “We are either a united people, or we are not… If we are not, let us no longer act a farce by pretending to it…” It was an urgent matter, and led to the calling of a Constitutional Convention.

In this colorful and moving portrait of America’s early struggles, when the fight for survival was constant, Bret Baier captures the dramatic moments when Washington’s leadership brought the nation from the brink of collapse. Baier exposes an early America that is grittier and far more divided than it is often portrayed—one we can see reflected in today’s conflicts.