Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review"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 "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 "
