We Have Not a Government: The Articles of Confederation and the Road to the Constitution
Brand: University of Chicago Press
Categories: Books, History, Americas



Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.1 inches
ISBN-13: 978-0226641522
Language: English
ISBN-10: 022664152X
Print length: 410 pages
Publication date: April 5, 2019
subtitle: Paperback – April 5, 2019
author: George William Van Cleve
review: Editorial Reviews Review “ We Have Not a Government provides a focused explanation of the reasons the Articles of Confederation, the nation’s first federal constitution, went lurching toward collapse. . . .Van Cleve patiently examines the specific matters of public policy that vexed national politics in the mid-1780s. He draws sharp conclusions and generally takes decided stands on matters that historians still actively dispute. . . .What Van Cleve does demonstrate, persuasively, is that the genuine crisis of the Confederation required creating a “staggeringly powerful” national government through a “grand bargain” that went well beyond what any state might have asked for itself.” -- Jack Rakove, Pulitzer Prize winner ― Washington Post "With careful attention and rich research, this book examines in depth each of the ways that the Confederation failed." -- David O. Stewart ― Washington Independent Review of Books “[Van Cleve] describes in great detail the varied and complicated issues faced by the impotent, insolvent Congress. . . .This detailed and well-researched history and analysis will appeal to scholars and serious popular history buffs.” ― Library Journal . . . a new and well-researched account of the policies and events that ultimately led to a loss of public confidence in the Articles of Confederation’s ability to govern a sectionally divided America. . . . [Van Cleve argues that] Political collapse, rather than imminent financial collapse, caused America’s leaders to lose faith in the Confederation’s ability to govern. ― Tulsa Law Review Review “Van Cleve’s superb new study offers a compelling account of the crisis of sovereignty that transformed the new and loosely United States of America. Deeply researched and powerfully argued, We Have Not a Government charts the decline and fall of the Articles of Confederation, thus illuminating the extraordinary circumstances in which the federal Constitution was drafted. This is the clearest, most sharply focused, and persuasive account of the stalemate of government in the Confederation and the states that precipitated the ‘grand bargain’ at the Philadelphia Convention that saved the union. It will be recognized as a landmark in the literature.” -- Peter S. Onuf ― Thomas Jefferson Professor, Emeritus, University of Virginia About the Author George William Van Cleve is research professor in law and history at Seattle University School of Law. He is the author of A Slaveholders’ Union , also published by the University of Chicago Press. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia, and his J.D. from Harvard Law School. Read more