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Historical Theory and Political Reform: Two Perspectives on Confederation Politics*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

Michael Lienesch
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Extract

Among recent American historians, few topics have provoked more controversy than the character of the Confederation period. On one side, scholars like Forrest McDonald have contended that the era from the end of the revolutionary war to the creation of the federal constitution was a time of economic confusion and political chaos, a “critical period” in which popular protest became violent enough to threaten civil war. On the other side, critics of this view led by Merrill Jensen have argued that the period was in fact prosperous and relatively stable, that political protests were few and mostly well behaved, and that, in short, the “critical period” was really not very critical at all. This article does not enter into this debate. Instead, it works from the premise that events are often less important than the perception of events. That is, actual conditions aside, it considers how Americans of the day perceived these conditions. In particular, it describes how they viewed their politics through the filter of their understanding of history.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Review of Politics , Volume 45 , Issue 1 , January 1983 , pp. 94 - 115
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1983

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References

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