1789: George Washington and the Founders Create America draws on hundreds of sources to paint a vivid portrait of the new nation, setting out to show the world at large that a new—and very American—form of government was calling itself into being. “No future session of Congress will ever have so arduous and weighty a charge on their hands,” the New York Gazette observed in summer 1789. “No examples to imitate, and no striking historical facts on which to ground their decisions—All is bare creation.”
The Constitution had been written in 1787 and ratified in 1788. But 1789 was the year the government it described—albeit only in the broadest of terms—had to be brought into being.
Veteran journalist Thomas B. Allen brings decades of experience and a gifted storyteller’s eye to the long-hidden history of how George Washington and the Founders set the federal government into motion.
Thomas B. Allen (1929-2018) was the "uthor of numerous history books, including Tories: Fighting for the King in Americas First Civil War (Harper, 2010), George Washington, Spymaster and Remember Valley Forge. A frequent contributor to Smithsonian Magazine, National Geographic, Military History Quarterly, Military History, Naval History, the U.S. Naval Institutes Proceedings, and other publications. He resided in Bethesda, Maryland.
Prologue: Eleven States Create a Nation
1 The Great Cause
2 The Specter of a King
3 The Reluctant President
4 Out with the Old
5 A New Government Awakens
6 “Now a King”
7 Etiquette Advice for the President
8 “All Is Bare Creation”
9 The Constitution as Blueprint
10 Counting We the People
11 America’s “Other Persons”
12 A Tub Full of Rights
13 “He Shall Have Power”
14 Stricken Washington, Fearful Nation
15 Washington Gets a Bastille Key
16 Seeing America’s Farms and Factories
17 Many Pirates—And No Navy
18 The Second Session: Hope and Angst
19 On the Frontier, Spies and Plots
20 Toward an American Language
Epilogue: In Rising Glory
Appendices
1 The “Correct”
Constitution of the United States
2 Inside the Dozen: the Bill of Rights
3 A Timeline of the Founding of the United States and the Federal Government
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Bibliographic Sources
Index
About the Author
Tom Allen-author, biographer, and student of the human heart- has given us a rare, through the keyhole of history look at the character and complexities of our Founding Fathers and the political turbulence that threatened to tear our young country apart. 1789 is must reading for those who want to grasp the relevance of today’s political turbulence with that faced by George Washington during the first year of his presidency.
— William S. Cohen, former Secretary of Defense
Allen (1929-2018) accepts the myth that Americans disliked the weak Articles of Confederation, which guided the Colonies through and after the Revolution. In fact, most Americans, from farmers to city workers, had few objections. Only the educated elite—northern lawyers and businessmen, southern planters—hated dealing with 13 separate currencies, banks, commercial regulations, and legal systems. Assembling in 1787, they cobbled together the Constitution, a mixture of specific and ambiguous guidelines for a more or less democratic central government. That was the easy part. Assembling a functioning government from these guidelines was exceedingly difficult. However, it’s fun to read about, and readers will enjoy Allen’s lively account of what followed as the first Congress assembled in New York in spring 1789 and welcomed the first president.
— Kirkus Reviews
Tories: Fighting for the King in America’s First Civil War
Allens thorough research and fast-paced narrative provide fresh ways of thinking about the Revolutionary War and shed new light on the lives of those, from bankers to small tradesmen, who remained loyal to the throne in the face of vigorous opposition and persecution.
— Publishers Weekly
Tories: Fighting for the King in America’s First Civil War
Not for the faint of heart or for those who prefer revolutions in ideas. Recruiters of spies as well as the spies themselves faced the gallows, and Allen tells us who kicked the box and how the body swayed. Bayonets in these pages run with blood.
— The New York Times Book Review
The Bonus Army: An American Epic
Dickson and Allen highlight the sacrifices these women and men made on our own soil to win fair treatment for veterans of future wars. Their important and moving work will appeal to both professional historians and casual readers interested in the history of Americas changing attitudes towards its soldiers.
— Publishers Weekly
The Bonus Army: An American Epic
A feat of research and analysis-a thoughtful, strong argument that these marches were among the most important demonstrations of the 20th century.
— Bookmarks Magazine
