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The momentous story of how George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and John Adams navigated the crises of the 1790s and in the process bound the states into a unified nation

Today the United States is the dominant power in world affairs, and that status seems assured. Yet in the decade following the ratification of the Constitution, the republic's existence was contingent and fragile, challenged by domestic rebellions, foreign interference, and the always-present danger of collapse into mob rule.

Carol Berkin reveals that the nation survived almost entirely due to the actions of the Federalist leadership -- George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and John Adams. Reacting to successive crises, they extended the power of the federal government and fended off foreign attempts to subvert American sovereignty. As Berkin argues, the result was a spike in nationalism, as ordinary citizens began to identify with their nation first, their home states second.

While the Revolution freed the states and the Constitution linked them as never before, this landmark work shows that it was the Federalists who transformed the states into an enduring nation.

Author Notes

Carol Berkin is the Baruch Presidential Professor of History at the CUNY Graduate Center. She is the author of many acclaimed books, including A Brilliant Solution . Berkin lives in New York City and Guilford, Connecticut.

Reviews (4)

Publisher's Weekly Review

In this distinctive new interpretation of the events of the 1790s, Berkin (The Bill of Rights), professor emerita of history at Baruch College and the CUNY Graduate Center, portrays the decade not as the era that inaugurated American party politics but as the seedtime of American nationalism. The difference is an academic nuance that may be lost on many readers of this nonetheless enjoyable and lively survey. The Federalists are the book's leading characters, those whom historians often harshly blame for holding pent-up democracy at bay. By contrast, Berkin credits them with creating, through "the hard work of governance," Americans' enduring attachment to the nation, even while they maintain their loyalties to their individual states. She builds her case around the decade's four well-known crises: the Whiskey Rebellion of 1791-1794, the Genet and so-called XYZ affairs of 1793 and 1798, and the tumult around the Alien and Sedition acts and the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions of 1798-1799. Alexander Hamilton plays a central role, as do George Washington and other Federalists. Of course, the Federalist Party disappeared, and the tensions between state and nation have never abated. Berkin allows readers to better see how the nationalist side of this struggle took form. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Kirkus Review

A historian offers a "closer look at the 1790s" designed to "remind us that nationalism and patriotism once carried more positive meaningsand give us reason to believe they can do so again."In 1789, when the war hero George Washington became the first president, everyone expected great changes. They were not disappointed, writes Berkin (Emerita, History/Baruch Coll.; The Bill of Rights: The Fight to Secure America's Liberties, 2015, etc.) in this insightful political history of the following decade. Washington and his supporters may have called themselves Federalists, but Berkin astutely notes that they were nationalists. They had written the Constitution and fought for ratification, and they wanted to make it work. They eventually succeeded after overcoming four bitter crises, which the author recounts at great length. No one realized how much the 1791 excise tax on distilled spirits would upset frontier farmers, who protested, often violently. Washington fumed at this "whiskey rebellion" for three years before crushing it. In 1793, Edmond Charles Genet, the "young and brash" new French minister, began aggressively recruiting Americans to support France's war against Britain. This outraged Washington's administration, but by year's end, he had self-destructed. The XYZ Affair is remembered as America's refusal to pay the corrupt French government a bribe. In truth, American diplomats dithered for months before deciding that there would be no quid pro quo. Opponents denounced the 1798 Aliens and Sedition Act as an attack on free speech. Controversy during its short, stormy life centered on interpreting the Constitution, which, Berkin emphasizes, showed that Americans had begun taking it seriously. Roughly 60 to 70 pages on each of the four political crises, filled with speeches, letters, editorials, polemics, debates, and legislation, may daunt some readers, but Berkin makes a reasonable case that the Founders' resolve left the U.S. a viable nation. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Choice Review

Berkin (emer., history, Baruch and CUNY Graduate Center) has written a lively, brisk interpretation of the crucial decade of the 1790s and its place in US political and constitutional history. She argues that the manner in which the Federalists (particularly the Washington/Hamilton/Adams bloc) addressed threats to national sovereignty created a stable polity and legitimized the Constitution as an enduring framework of government until the crisis of the Civil War. Berkin examines four crises--the Whiskey Rebellion, the Genet Affair, the XYZ Affair, and the Alien and Sedition Acts--to illustrate how the Federalists saved what began as a very fragile union. The author clearly sympathizes with the Federalists, and even though she admits that the last "crisis" was of their own making, she suggests the Alien and Sedition Acts did not impact the election of 1800. Her pro-Hamiltonian lense does not see the wider range of opposition behind the Whiskey Rebellion, and one might argue she simplifies the opposition in general. Students of this era are well familiar with the story Berkin tells, but her book is an engaging introduction to the origins of US nationalism. Summing Up: Recommended. Public and general libraries. --Kevin M. Gannon, Grand View University

Library Journal Review

Berkin (history, City Univ. of New York; Civil War Wives) scrutinizes four crises of the 1790s to tell the story of how the Federalist party, under the leadership of George -Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and John Adams, united the nation under the authority of the federal government. The author's core argument suggests that the Federalist response to the Whiskey Rebellion, the Genet affair, the XYZ affair, and the Alien and Sedition Acts not only extended the scope of the government's power but also shifted people's negative perception of the government, giving rise to American nationalism. This work expands readers' understanding of the shifting loyalties from Washington the individual to the office of the president to the shared identity of the American people and finally to the U.S. Constitution itself. A solid companion to Eliga H. Gould's Among the Powers of the Earth for developing a nuanced take on how the nascent U.S. government solidified its power in the eyes of the American people and the world. VERDICT Essential reading for all history lovers.-Jessica Holland, Univ. of Kentucky, Lexington © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Introduction	p. 1
Part I The Whiskey Rebellion	p. 7
Part II The Genet Affair	p. 81
Part III The XYZ Affair	p. 151
Part IV The Alien and Sedition Acts	p. 201
Conclusion	p. 245
Acknowledgments	p. 251
Notes	p. 253
Bibliography	p. 283
Index	p. 293

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