The Beginnings of National Politics An Interpretive History of the Continental Congress / Jack N. Rakove.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rakove, Jack N., 1947- author.

Series:

Hopkins open publishing encore editions.

Hopkins open publishing encore editions

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

United States--Politics and government--1783-1789.

United States.

United States--Politics and government--1775-1783.

United States. Continental Congress.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (1 PDF (unpaged).)

Edition:

Open access edition.

Place of Publication:

Johns Hopkins University Press 2019

Baltimore, Maryland : Project Muse, 2019

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Despite a necessary preoccupation with the Revolutionary struggle, America's Continental Congress succeeded in establishing itself as a governing body with national--and international--authority. How the Congress acquired and maintained this power and how the delegates sought to resolve the complex theoretical problems that arose in forming a federal government are the issues confronted in Jack N. Rakove's searching reappraisal of Revolution-era politics. Avoiding the tendency to interpret the decisions of the Congress in terms of competing factions or conflicting ideologies, Rakove opts for a more pragmatic view. He reconstructs the political climate of the Revolutionary period, mapping out both the immediate problems confronting the Congress and the available alternatives as perceived by the delegates. He recreates a landscape littered with unfamiliar issues, intractable problems, unattractive choices, and partial solutions, all of which influenced congressional decisions on matters as prosaic as military logistics or as abstract as the definition of federalism.

Contents:

part 1. Resistance and revolution : resistance without union, 1770-1774

The creation of a mandate

The First Continental Congress

War and politics, 1775-1776

Independence

A lengthening war

part 2. Confederation : confederation considered

Confederation drafted

The beginnings of national government

Ambition and responsibility : an essay on revolutionary politics

part 3. Crises : factional conflict and foreign policy

A government without money

The administration of Robert Morris

part 4. Reform : union without power : the confederation in peacetime

Toward the Philadelphia Convention.

Notes:

Originally published: Baltimore, Maryland : Johns Hopkins University Press, 1982.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

0-8018-2864-3

1-4214-3058-4

OCLC:

1120077210