Recreating the American Republic : Rules of Apportionment, Constitutional Change, and American Political Development, 1700-1870

Political historians recognize the colonial years and the American Revolution, the early national era and the 1787 Constitutional Convention, the nineteenth century and the American Civil War as the three most important eras in American history. Recreating the American Republic offers the first comparative historical analysis and synthesis of these.

Rules of apportionment are elements of social and political order. In social gatherings, families and governments they assume a variety of written and unwritten forms and in every order they determine not only how collective decisions are made but also how and why a particular constitutional order develops over time. Recreating the American Republic provides a far-reaching analysis of when, how and why these rules change and with what consequences. Recreating the American Republic reveals the import of these rules of apportionment by engaging the three most widely recognized and studied eras and events of American political history: the Colonial era and the American Revolution; the early national years and the 1787 Constitutional Convention; and the nineteenth century and the American Civil War. Recreating the American Republic systematically compares each seemingly familiar era and event - revealing new insights and a new metanarrative of American political development between 1700 and 1870.