The Critical Period of American History

The book sketches the political history of the United States between the end of the Revolutionary War and the adoption of the federal Constitution, tracing diplomatic negotiations, economic distress, interstate disputes, and the weaknesses of the confederation that menaced national survival. It examines international diplomacy over boundaries, fisheries, and debts, the pressures of domestic unrest and fiscal insolvency, and the political debates that moved leaders from loose confederation toward a stronger federal structure. Arranged chronologically and thematically, the account emphasizes causal connections among events and decisions that together produced the movement toward constitutional reform.