The New Nation: A History of the United States During the Confederation, 1781-1789

This book is an account of the first years of the new nation that was born of the American Revolution. Like every other segment of time, the history of the United States from 1781 to 1789 was an integral part of the past in which it was rooted and of the future into which it was growing. It was a time when men believed they could shape the future of the new nation, and since it was also a time in which they disagreed as to what that future should be, they discussed great issues with a forthrightness and realism seldom equaled in political debates. The history of the Confederation is therefore one of great inherent importance for the study of human society if for no other reason that that during it men debated publicly and even violently the question of whether or not people could govern themselves.