The quartet : orchestrating the second American Revolution, 1783-1789

Summary: "The prizewinning author of Founding Brothers and American Sphinx now gives us the unexpected story--brilliantly told--of why the thirteen colonies, having just fought off the imposition of a distant centralized governing power, would decide to subordinate themselves anew. The triumph of the American Revolution was neither an ideological nor political guarantee that the colonies would relinquish their independence and accept the creation of a federal government with power over their individual autonomy. The Quartet is the story of this second American founding and of the men responsible--some familiar, such as George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison, and some less so, such as Robert Morris and Governeur Morris. It was these men who shaped the contours of American history by diagnosing the systemic dysfunctions created by the Articles of Confederation, manipulating the political process to force a calling of the Constitutional Convention, conspiring to set the agenda in Philadelphia, orchestrating the debate in the state ratifying conventions, and, finally, drafting the Bill of Rights to assure state compliance with the constitutional settlement"--

Record details

ISBN: 0385353413
ISBN: 9780385353410
ISBN: 9780385353403
ISBN: 0385353405
ISBN: 9780804172486
ISBN: 080417248X
Physical Description: remote
1 online resource.
Edition: First edition.
Publisher: New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2015.

Content descriptions

General Note:	"A Borzoi book"--Title page verso.
Bibliography, etc. Note:	Includes bibliographical references and index.
Formatted Contents Note:	Preface : Pluribus to Unum -- The Articles and the Vision -- The Financier and the Prodigy -- The Domain -- The Courting -- Madison's Moment -- The Great Debate -- Unfinished Business -- Appendices.
Source of Description Note:	Print version record.