A Sovereign People

February 6, 2017
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.

March 15, 2017
A historian offers a -closer look at the 1790s- designed to -remind us that nationalism and patriotism once carried more positive meanings--and 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.

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Starred review from April 1, 2017

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

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