Website Search
Find information on spaces, staff, and services.
Catalog Search
Books
The beginnings of national politics : an interpretive history of the Continental Congress
- Author / Creator
- Available as
- Physical
- Summary
-
Two momentous meetings at Philadelphia frame the subject of this book. The First Continental Congress of 1774 and the Constitutional convention of 1787. The creation of an effective national govern...
Two momentous meetings at Philadelphia frame the subject of this book. The First Continental Congress of 1774 and the Constitutional convention of 1787. The creation of an effective national government was one of the most difficult and persistent tasks that the Revolutionaries confronted, and it was a problem whose dimensions seemed to change with the course of events. In the early years of the Revolution, union depended largely on the delegates' ability to frame a broadly acceptable strategy of resistance. By the late 1770's and early 1780's it meant devising expedients to sustain a tottering war effort and the morale of a tired populace. After independence was secured, the continued existence of a federal union came to require a thorough and incisive reexamination of major principles of American republicanism.
Details
Checking for availability...
- Creator
- Jack N. Rakove
- Format
- Books
- Language
- English
- Publication
-
- First edition
- New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 1979
- New York : Random House
- Physical Details
-
- xviii, 484 pages ; 22 cm
- ISBNs
- 0394423704, 9780394423708
- OCLC
- ocm04775394, ocm04775394
- "Borzoi book."--Colophon.
- Author is an alumnus of Evanston Township High School, class of 1964.
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 463-469) and index.
- Acknowledgments -- Preface -- Part One, Resistance And Revolution. I. Resistance Without Union, 1770-1774. The Fallow Years ; The Idea of a Congress ; The Structure of Politics -- II. The Creation of a Mandate. The Calling of a Congress ; Mobilizing Popular Opinion ; Expectations -- III. The First Continental Congress. The Problem of Massachusetts ; The Association ; Rights and Grievances -- IV. War and Politics, 1775-1776. A Mandate Renewed ; Policies Reconsidered ; The Prospect of Independence -- V. Independence. The Decision for Independence. Lessons -- VI. A Lengthening War. Diplomacy on Two Fronts ; Changing Concerns
- Part Two, Confederation. VII. Confederation Considered. ; Confederation: An Early Chronology ; Initial Conceptions ; The Dickinson Plan ; Congress Debates -- VIII. Confederation Drafted. Thomas Burke and the Problem of Sovereignty ; Confederation Completed ; The Limits of Constitutional Thought -- IX. The Beginnings of National Government. Precedents ; Problems ; Representation Without Taxation -- X. Ambition and Responsibility: An Essay on Revolutionary Politics
- Part Three Crises. Xl. Factional Conflict and Foreign Policy. Sources of Partisanship ; The Affairs of Silas Deane ; The Year of Division, 1779 -- XII. A Government Without Money. The Problem of Supplies ; Confederation Reconsidered -- XIII. The Administration of Robert Morris. The Morris Program ; Morris and Congress: A Reassessment ; Omens
- Part Four Reform. XIV. Union Without Power: The Confederation in Peacetime. Capital ; Revenue ; Dilemmas of Foreign Policy ; Land ; Reputation -- XV. Toward the Philadelphia Convention. Full Circle: The Tactics of Reform ; The Emergence of Madison ; The Deadlock of Thought ; The Idea of a National Government ; The Virtue of Isolation -- Notes -- A Note on Primary Sources -- Index