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We Have Not a Government: The Articles of Confederation and the Road to the Constitution Paperback – April 5, 2019

4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 54 ratings
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In 1783, as the Revolutionary War came to a close, Alexander Hamilton resigned in disgust from the Continental Congress after it refused to consider a fundamental reform of the Articles of Confederation. Just four years later, that same government collapsed, and Congress grudgingly agreed to support the 1787 Philadelphia Constitutional Convention, which altered the Articles beyond recognition. What occurred during this remarkably brief interval to cause the Confederation to lose public confidence and inspire Americans to replace it with a dramatically more flexible and powerful government? We Have Not a Government is the story of this contentious moment in American history.

In George William Van Cleve’s book, we encounter a sharply divided America. The Confederation faced massive war debts with virtually no authority to compel its members to pay them. It experienced punishing trade restrictions and strong resistance to American territorial expansion from powerful European governments. Bitter sectional divisions that deadlocked the Continental Congress arose from exploding western settlement. And a deep, long-lasting recession led to sharp controversies and social unrest across the country amid roiling debates over greatly increased taxes, debt relief, and paper money. Van Cleve shows how these remarkable stresses transformed the Confederation into a stalemate government and eventually led previously conflicting states, sections, and interest groups to advocate for a union powerful enough to govern a continental empire.

Touching on the stories of a wide-ranging cast of characters—including John Adams, Patrick Henry, Daniel Shays, George Washington, and Thayendanegea—Van Cleve makes clear that it was the Confederation’s failures that created a political crisis and led to the 1787 Constitution. Clearly argued and superbly written, We Have Not a Government is a must-read history of this crucial period in our nation’s early life.
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  1. Print length
    410 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publication date
    April 5, 2019
  4. Dimensions
    9 x 6 x 1.1 inches
  5. ISBN-10
    022664152X
  6. ISBN-13
    978-0226641522
  7. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“We Have Not a Government provides a focused explanation of the reasons the Articles of Confederation, the nation’s first federal constitution, went lurching toward collapse. . . .Van Cleve patiently examines the specific matters of public policy that vexed national politics in the mid-1780s. He draws sharp conclusions and generally takes decided stands on matters that historians still actively dispute. . . .What Van Cleve does demonstrate, persuasively, is that the genuine crisis of the Confederation required creating a “staggeringly powerful” national government through a “grand bargain” that went well beyond what any state might have asked for itself.” -- Jack Rakove, Pulitzer Prize winner ― Washington Post

"With careful attention and rich research, this book examines in depth each of the ways that the Confederation failed." -- David O. Stewart ― Washington Independent Review of Books

“[Van Cleve] describes in great detail the varied and complicated issues faced by the impotent, insolvent Congress. . . .This detailed and well-researched history and analysis will appeal to scholars and serious popular history buffs.” ― Library Journal

. . . a new and well-researched account of the policies and events that ultimately led to a loss of public confidence in the Articles of Confederation’s ability to govern a sectionally divided America. . . . [Van Cleve argues that] Political collapse, rather than imminent financial collapse, caused America’s leaders to lose faith in the Confederation’s ability to govern. ― Tulsa Law Review

Review

“Van Cleve’s superb new study offers a compelling account of the crisis of sovereignty that transformed the new and loosely United States of America. Deeply researched and powerfully argued, We Have Not a Government charts the decline and fall of the Articles of Confederation, thus illuminating the extraordinary circumstances in which the federal Constitution was drafted. This is the clearest, most sharply focused, and persuasive account of the stalemate of government in the Confederation and the states that precipitated the ‘grand bargain’ at the Philadelphia Convention that saved the union. It will be recognized as a landmark in the literature.” -- Peter S. Onuf ― Thomas Jefferson Professor, Emeritus, University of Virginia

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of Chicago Press; Reprint edition (April 5, 2019)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 410 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 022664152X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0226641522
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.25 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9 x 6 x 1.1 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 54 ratings

About the author

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George Van Cleve

George Van Cleve

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George William Van Cleve is Dean's Visiting Scholar, Georgetown University Law Center. He was formerly Research Professor in Law and History, Seattle University School of Law. PhD, University of Virginia; JD, Harvard Law School.

In 2017, he published We Have Not a Government: The Articles of Confederation and the Road to the Constitution. For a video of his talk on that book at the U.S. National Archives, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBZP8PxmGuw.

In 2020, he published Making a New American Constitution, a book on why the United States Constitution needs major reforms and how we can make them.

His hobbies include mountain hiking, biking, and reading.

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
54 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Peter Lipsett
5.0 out of 5 stars Overlooked history well told
Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2023
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History classes and even Revolutionary-era biographies too often gloss over the ill-fated (and ill-suited) Articles of Confederation. Understanding those years where the US was governed by these weak Articles of important to truly understanding the genius of the Constitution. Well written but probably more dense and fact-filled than a casual reader would want, but very thorough for those who really wish to understand this era.
3 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting
Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2020
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Avery interesting read on a little examined period of American history.
2 people found this helpful
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RPC
5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting Book Describing the Perilous "Confederation" Period
Reviewed in the United States on July 14, 2018
Verified Purchase
Interesting, well-researched book discussing the "Confederation" period between the end of the Revolutionary War and the Constitutional Convention of 1787. The book provides compelling evidence that the Constitution was not merely an effort by wealthy elites to protect their status and property against "leveling" influences but, instead, was a pragmatic response to the multiple defects of the Articles of Confederation (e.g., inability to pay Revolutionary War domestic and foreign debts and maintain public credit, inability to resolve interstate and sectional conflicts, inability to protect or govern western settlers, inability to deal with British and Spanish intrigues). An excellent book describing this perilous period of American history.
5 people found this helpful
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BigMac1912
5.0 out of 5 stars Articles of Confederation Quick Source
Reviewed in the United States on January 26, 2018
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The complete Articles as originally written - and interpreted. A perfect resource for my Civics students.
3 people found this helpful
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Elie Harriett
5.0 out of 5 stars Fills in many blanks in my knowledge
Reviewed in the United States on June 25, 2018
This is a great book that goes over that period between the end of the revolution and the beginning of the federal government. Why did we make this change? How bad was our confederacy? These were questions I always wondered about and now I know.

The book is dry but engaging. It is laid out in easy to follow sections. I have no complaints and highly recommend it.
3 people found this helpful
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DGR
3.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars Until the Epilogue
Reviewed in the United States on June 19, 2019
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I choose the book as I wanted to learn the important issues facing the country that lead to the 1787 constitutional convention before reading Gordon's book on the convention debates. Up to the epilogue, the book fulfilled my expectations. However, I give the epilogue no more than a star due to his interjection of a personal present-day bias. It's certainly his prerogative as the author, but for me has no place in an otherwise well presented historical perspective of the failure of the Confederation.
11 people found this helpful
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Kindle Customer
3.0 out of 5 stars Dry
Reviewed in the United States on March 22, 2018
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Very true but dry and not quite what I was looking for. There wasn't much on how the Articles of Confederation were ratified.
5 people found this helpful
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C. Campbell
3.0 out of 5 stars Good history of US Confederation but with a bit of bias
Reviewed in the United States on February 9, 2020
This is a good book that tells of the period after the War for Independence leading up to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. The government of the colonies was a Confederation. The author makes a good case for why this government was considered dysfunctional and needed to be changed. This is not without a certain bias towards the ones he labels "nationalists" and against the Federalists. (The terms Federalist and anti-Federalist switched during the time of the Convention.) The author is dismissive of the counter arguments that the system could have worked out.

The case is well-made that the new goverment was ham-strung with heavy debts to Britain, former soldiers, and others. There was the issue of the states not wanting or able to help pay those debts as they had problems of their own. Add to this the great migration westwards and Spain closing the Mississippi River to American shipping. Another addition would be the issue of clashes with Native American tribes.

As another reviewer has commented, the author reveals a certain agenda in the Epilogue by saying the Constitution was flawed because of the equal state representation in the Senate. This leaves out the proportionate representation of the House. The bicameral Legislature was a design that preserved the equal state representation of the Confederation and the Constitution might not have been ratified without it. But some who give the California versus Wyoming example like the author and like Bill Maher in a recent interview with Steve Bannon (2.7.20), want one state or a small group of states to dominate the entire country. They want to win when in fact that is not what a national government is about. They are fans of collectivism.
11 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Jacob la Cour
5.0 out of 5 stars A book every American should read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 26, 2020
Verified Purchase
Every time a debate arises about the US constitution, electoral college etc, the usual statement from Americans is that their Founders were demi-god-like geniouses who drafted the most perfect constitution. But seen from Europe that is clearly not so. Knowing the background and process it is very clear that it was based on a specific set of facts and a compromise between conflicting interests. Contrary to what DGR states in his/her review, I found the epilogue very important - that the constitution might have been great in 1787 between 13 states, but does not work in 2020 between 50 states of hugely different sizes where a government unable to make decisions is worse than the risk of "majority tyranny".
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