Max M. Edling's Books

A Hercules in the Cradle

War, Money, and the American State, 1783–1867

By: Max M. Edling

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A Hercules in the Cradle

War, Money, and the American State, 1783–1867

By: Max M. Edling

Explores the origin and evolution of American public finance and shows how the nation’s rise to great-power status in the nineteenth century rested on its ability to go into debt. Two and a half centuries after the American Revolution the United States stands as one of the greatest powers on earth and the undoubted leader of the western hemisphere. This stupendous evolution was far from a foregone conclusion at independence. The conquest of the North American continent required violence, suffering, and bloodshed. It also required the creation of a national government strong enough to go to war against, and acquire territory from, its North American rivals. In A Hercules in the Cradle, Max M. Edling argues that the federal government’s abilities to tax and borrow money, developed in the early years of the republic, were critical to the young nation’s ability to wage war and expand its territory. He traces the growth of this capacity from the time of the founding to the aftermath of the Civil War, including the funding of the War of 1812 and the Mexican War. Edling maintains that the Founding Fathers clearly understood the connection between public finance and power: a well-managed public debt was a key part of every modern state. Creating a debt would always be a delicate and contentious matter in the American context, however, and statesmen of all persuasions tried to pay down the national debt in times of peace.

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331

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University of Chicago Press

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ISBN 10

0226829367

ISBN 13

9780226829364

A Revolution in Favor of Government

Origins of the U.S. Constitution and the Making of the American State

By: Max M. Edling

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A Revolution in Favor of Government

Origins of the U.S. Constitution and the Making of the American State

By: Max M. Edling

What were the intentions of the Founders? Was the American constitution designed to protect individual rights? To limit the powers of government? To curb the excesses of democracy? Or to create a robust democratic nation-state? These questions echo through today's most heated legal and political debates. In this powerful new interpretation of America's origins, Max Edling argues that the Federalists were primarily concerned with building a government that could act vigorously in defense of American interests. The Constitution transferred the powers of war making and resource extraction from the states to the national government thereby creating a nation-state invested with all the important powers of Europe's eighteenth-century "fiscal-military states." A strong centralized government, however, challenged the American people's deeply ingrained distrust of unduly concentrated authority. To secure the Constitution's adoption the Federalists had to accommodate the formation of a powerful national government to the strong current of anti-statism in the American political tradition. They did so by designing a government that would be powerful in times of crisis, but which would make only limited demands on the citizenry and have a sharply restricted presence in society. The Constitution promised the American people the benefit of government without its costs. Taking advantage of a newly published letterpress edition of the constitutional debates, A Revolution in Favor of Government recovers a neglected strand of the Federalist argument, making a persuasive case for rethinking the formation of the federal American state.

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346

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Oxford University Press

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ISBN 10

0199705852

ISBN 13

9780199705856

Perfecting the Union

National and State Authority in the US Constitution

By: Max M. Edling

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Perfecting the Union

National and State Authority in the US Constitution

By: Max M. Edling

For most of the twentieth century, the American founding has been presented as a struggle between social classes over issues arising primarily within, rather than outside, the United States. But in recent years, new scholarship has instead turned to the international history of the American union to interpret both the causes and the consequences of the US Constitution. In Perfecting the Union, Max M. Edling argues that the Constitution was created to defend US territorial integrity and the national interest from competitors in the western borderlands and on the Atlantic Ocean, and to defuse inter-state tension within the union. By replacing the defunct Articles of Confederation, the Constitution profoundly transformed the structure of the American union by making the national government more effective. But it did not transform the fundamental purpose of the union, which remained a political organization designed to manage inter-state and international relations. And in contrast to what many scholars claim, it was never meant to eclipse the state governments. The Constitution created a national government but did not significantly extend its remit. The result was a dual structure of government, in which the federal government and the states were both essential to the people's welfare. Getting the story about the Constitution straight matters, Edling claims, because it makes possible a broader assessment of the American founding as both a transformative event, aiming at territorial and economic expansion, and as a conservative event, aiming at the preservation of key elements of the colonial socio-political order.

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194

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Oxford University Press

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0197534724

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9780197534724

A Revolution in Favor of Government:

Origins of the U.S. Constitution and the Making of the American State

By: Max. M Edling

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A Revolution in Favor of Government:

Origins of the U.S. Constitution and the Making of the American State

By: Max. M Edling

Edling argues that during the US Constitutional debates, the Federalists were concerned with building a state able to act vigorously in defence of US national interests. The Constitution was their promise of the benefits of government without its costs. They proposed statecraft rather than central authority as the solution to governing.

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346

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Oxford University Press

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ISBN 10

0195148703

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9780195148701

The Creation of the Constitution

By: Max M. Edling

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The Creation of the Constitution

By: Max M. Edling

An earlier version of this essay was published as "A More Perfect Union: The Framing and Ratification of the Constitution," in The Oxford Handbook of the American Revolution, eds. Edward G. Gray and Jane Kamensky (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013), 388-406. Reproduced by permission of Oxford University Press (http://global.oup.com/academic)"--

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New Essays on American Constit

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0872292118

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9780872292116

A Hercules in the Cradle

War, Money, and the American State, 1783–1867

By: Max M. Edling

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A Hercules in the Cradle

War, Money, and the American State, 1783–1867

By: Max M. Edling

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331

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University of Chicago Press

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ISBN 10

0226829367

ISBN 13

9780226829364

Perfecting the Union

National and State Authority in the US Constitution

By: Max M. Edling

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Perfecting the Union

National and State Authority in the US Constitution

By: Max M. Edling

Habitually interpreted as the fundamental law of the American republic, the US Constitution was in fact designed as an instrument of union between thirteen American republics and as a form of government for their common central government. It offered an organizational solution to the security concerns of the newly independent American states. Confederation was an established means for weak states to maintain their independence by joining in union to manage relations with the outside world from a position of strength. Confederation also transformed the immediate international environment by turning neighboring states from potential enemies into sister states in a common union or peace pact. The US Constitution profoundly altered the structure of the American union and made the federal government more effective than under the defunct Articles of Confederation. But it did not transform the fundamental purpose of the federal union, which remained the management of relations between the American states, on the one hand, and between the American states and foreign powers, on the other hand. As had been the case under the articles, the states regulated the social, economic, and civic life of their citizens and inhabitants with only limited supervision and control from the federal government. Interpreting the Constitution as an instrument of union has important implications for our understanding of the American founding. The Constitution mattered much more to the international than to the domestic history of the United States. Its importance to the latter was dwarfed by that of state constitutions and legislation"--

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209

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Oxford University Press, USA

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ISBN 10

0197534716

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9780197534717

Book's by Max M. Edling

A Hercules in the Cradle

A Hercules in the Cradle

A Revolution in Favor of Government

A Revolution in Favor of Government

Perfecting the Union

Perfecting the Union

A Revolution in Favor of Government:

A Revolution in Favor of Government:

The Creation of the Constitution

The Creation of the Constitution

A Hercules in the Cradle

A Hercules in the Cradle

Perfecting the Union

Perfecting the Union

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