Skip to main content

A Revolution in Favor of Government



I find myself reading this book by Max Edling, which explores the ratification debates and the early Federalist government.  He takes on a more pedantic tone, which can be a bit irritating, but offers a number of valuable insights.  He looks at the Constitution in relation to contemporary views, particularly those held by historians like Bailyn and Wood.  In this sense it is a historiography, exploring the Constitution's "original intent," and how it has been interpreted.  Looks like a complete on-line copy here.

Comments

  1. Interesting book and more along the lines of what I enjoy reading -- although it does have all the trappings of the dissertation. Still, he makes some interesting points and zeroes in on some of what I found frustrating with the Maier book -- focusing on what the anti-federalists objected to (standing armies and taxation) partially at least in relation to their view of Europe states.

    Unless he changes his argument later in the book, he does seem to agree that even the anti-federalists at the ratifying conventions were the educated and affluent and often did not reflect or even really represent the population as a whole. They looked to them, according to Edling, to use their advantages to make informed decisions.

    It helps to see the primary sources that Maier uses reflected here in his analysis. Makes me wish now that I had read Beard and some of the other progressives.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Read some more in this last night -- fascinating the role tax policy played in state formation. One of the interesting things about Edling is that he's writing from the outside looking in. It's not a great read, but really fascinating material.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

O Pioneers!

It is hard not to think of Nebraska without thinking of its greatest writer.  Here is a marvelous piece by Capote, Remembering Willa Cather . I remember seeing a stage production of O Pioneers! and being deeply moved by its raw emotions.  I had read My Antonia before, and soon found myself hooked, like Capote was by the simple elegance of her prose and the way she was able to evoke so many feelings through her characters.  Much of it came from the fact that she had lived those experiences herself. Her father dragged the family from Virginia to Nebraska in 1883, when it was still a young state, settling in the town of Red Cloud. named after one of the great Oglala chiefs.  Red Cloud was still alive at the time, living on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, in the aftermath of the "Great Sioux Wars" of 1876-77.  I don't know whether Cather took any interest in the famous chief, although it is hard to imagine not.  Upon his death in 1909, he was eulogi

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

  Welcome to this month's reading group selection.  David Von Drehle mentions The Melting Pot , a play by Israel Zangwill, that premiered on Broadway in 1908.  At that time theater was accessible to a broad section of the public, not the exclusive domain it has become over the decades.  Zangwill carried a hopeful message that America was a place where old hatreds and prejudices were pointless, and that in this new country immigrants would find a more open society.  I suppose the reference was more an ironic one for Von Drehle, as he notes the racial and ethnic hatreds were on display everywhere, and at best Zangwill's play helped persons forget for a moment how deep these divides ran.  Nevertheless, "the melting pot" made its way into the American lexicon, even if New York could best be describing as a boiling cauldron in the early twentieth century. Triangle: The Fire That Changed America takes a broad view of events that led up the notorious fire, noting the gro

Colonel

Now with Colonel Roosevelt , the magnum opus is complete. And it deserves to stand as the definitive study of its restless, mutable, ever-boyish, erudite and tirelessly energetic subject. Mr. Morris has addressed the toughest and most frustrating part of Roosevelt’s life with the same care and precision that he brought to the two earlier installments. And if this story of a lifetime is his own life’s work, he has reason to be immensely proud.  -- Janet Maslin -- NY Times . Let the discussion begin!