Edling argues that during the Constitutional debates, the Federalist were most concerned with building a state able to act vigorously in defense of American national interests. By transferring the powers of war making and resource-extraction from states to the national government, the U.S. Constitution created a nation-state invested with all the important powers of Europe's eighteenth-century 'fiscal-military states'. However, the political traditions and institutions of America were incompatible with a strong centralized government based on the European pattern. To secure the Constitution's adoption, the Federalists needed to build a very different state. The administration they designed made limited demands on citizens and entailed sharp restrictions on the physical presence of the national government in society. The Constitution was the Federalists' promise of the benefits of governemnt without its costs. The Federalist proposed statecraft rather than strong central authority as the solution to governing.
Reviews
A book of undoubted power and value * The Journal of American History *
At the very least, Max M. Edling has written the most important book on the adoption of the United States Constitution to appear since Forrest McDonald refuted Charles Beard in We the People: The Economic Origins of the Constitution (1958). * Journal of the Early American Republic *
Edling's book is a powerfully argued revisionist interpretation of the origins of the Constitution. More than anything else, it helps us better understand the constitutional sources of the gigantic fiscal-military state that the United States has become. * Gordon S. Wood, Alva O. Way University Professor and Professor of History, Brown University *
Not only a pleasure to read but extremely informative and persuasively argued. I will never think about the U.S. Constitution in the old way again. * Daniel Walker Howe, author of What Hath God Wrought *



Book Information
ISBN 9780195148701
Author Max. M Edling
Format Hardback
Page Count 352
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 572g
Dimensions(mm) 241mm * 164mm * 21mm