1789

Thomas B. Allen

doi:10.5771/9781538183106

Summary

"[Historian Allen] recreates in this meticulous and fast-moving posthumous account the events of the pivotal year 1789 in America. It’s a superb distillation of a complex moment in U.S. history.”— Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

1789: George Washington and the Founders Create Americadraws on hundreds of sources to paint a vivid portrait of the new nation, setting out to show the world at large that a new—and very American—form of government was calling itself into being. “No future session of Congress will ever have so arduous and weighty a charge on their hands,” the New York Gazette observed in summer 1789. “No examples to imitate, and no striking historical facts on which to ground their decisions—All is bare creation.”

The Constitution had been written in 1787 and ratified in 1788. But 1789 was the year the government it described—albeit only in the broadest of terms—had to be brought into being.

Veteran journalist Thomas B. Allen brings decades of experience and a gifted storyteller’s eye to the long-hidden history of how George Washington and the Founders set the federal government into motion.

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Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2023
ISBN-Print: 978-1-5381-8309-0
ISBN-Online: 978-1-5381-8310-6
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 400
Product type: Book Titles

1. Contents No access
PROLOGUE No access Pages 9 - 16
1. THE GREAT CAUSE No access Pages 17 - 28
2. THE SPECTER OF A KING No access Pages 29 - 46
3. THE RELUCTANT PRESIDENT No access Pages 47 - 54
4. OUT WITH THE OLD No access Pages 55 - 62
5. A NEW GOVERNMENT AWAKENS No access Pages 63 - 70
6. “NOW A KING” No access Pages 71 - 86
7. ETIQUETTE ADVICE FOR THE PRESIDENT No access Pages 87 - 98
8. “ALL IS BARE CREATION” No access Pages 99 - 104
9. THE CONSTITUTION AS BLUEPRINT No access Pages 105 - 114
10. COUNTING WE THE PEOPLE No access Pages 115 - 126
11. AMERICA’S “OTHER PERSONS” No access Pages 127 - 136
12. A TUB FULL OF RIGHTS No access Pages 137 - 146
13. “HE SHALL HAVE POWER” No access Pages 147 - 156
14. STRICKEN WASHINGTON, FEARFUL NATION No access Pages 157 - 162
15. WASHINGTON GETS A BASTILLE KEY No access Pages 163 - 182
17. MANY PIRATES—AND NO NAVY No access Pages 183 - 190
18. THE SECOND SESSION: HOPE AND ANGST No access Pages 191 - 202
19. ON THE FRONTIER, SPIES AND PLOTS No access Pages 203 - 216
20. TOWARD AN AMERICAN LANGUAGE No access Pages 217 - 230
21. IN RISING GLORY No access Pages 231 - 246
APPENDIX 1: THE “CORRECT” CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES No access Pages 247 - 260
APPENDIX 2: INSIDE THE DOZEN: THE BILL OF RIGHTS No access Pages 261 - 264
APPENDIX 3: A TIMELINE OF THE FOUNDING OF THE UNITED STATES AND THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT No access Pages 265 - 274
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS No access Pages 275 - 276
Notes No access Pages 277 - 324
BIBLIOGRAPHY No access Pages 325 - 325
BIBLIOGRAPHIC SOURCES No access Pages 326 - 376
INDEX No access Pages 377 - 394
ABOUT THE AUTHOR No access Pages 395 - 400