From Independence to the U.S. Constitution: Reconsidering the Critical Period of American History

National Archives Museum
Online

The years between the end of the American Revolution in 1783 and the ratification of the U.S. Constitution in 1789 have been described as either the best of times or the worst of times and rarely separated from the U.S. Constitution. While some historians have celebrated the achievement of the Constitutional Convention, described as saving the Revolution, others have argued that the Constitution’s framers put an end to the liberating tendencies of the Revolution. How did the pre-Constitution, post-independence United States work? What were the possibilities and the tremendous opportunities? Editors Douglas Bradburn and Christopher R. Pearl examine this critical period in American history and the pivotal decade of the 1780s.