It's Monday, What are You Reading?
The First Congress:
The First Congress:
How James Madison, George Washington, and a Group of Extraordinary Men Invented the Government
by Fergus M. Bordewich
This post is the one-hundred and thirteenth entry for this meme suggested by Sheila@ One Persons Journey Through A World of Books. [Entries 22-25 in the series were posted at the Dr. Bill Tells Ancestor Stories]
This is one of two books on my Wish List that Nancy got me for my birthday, from Amazon…this one in Kindle Edition, which I read on my iPad Mini. Therefore, I read this book in bits and pieces between other reading of news articles from many sources, Facebook, and my two games. I’m only a couple of chapters in but am already seeing that the arguments on the floor of Congress in those first few days of trying to create a government out of the approved Constitution are over many of the same issues and the same approaches now, as then. Oh, my! ;-) I am really not surprised, of course. Different folks see the same issues differently, depending on their individual viewpoints and agendas. That has not changed, and will not change, in a democratic republic - long may it live!!! ;-)
Book Description from Amazon:
The little known story of perhaps the most productive Congress in US history, the First Federal Congress of 1789–1791.
The First Congress was the most important in US history, says prizewinning author and historian Fergus Bordewich, because it established how our government would actually function. Had it failed—as many at the time feared it would—it’s possible that the United States as we know it would not exist today.
The Constitution was a broad set of principles. It was left to the members of the First Congress and President George Washington to create the machinery that would make the government work. Fortunately, James Madison, John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, and others less well known today, rose to the occasion. During two years of often fierce political struggle, they passed the first ten amendments to the Constitution; they resolved bitter regional rivalries to choose the site of the new national capital; they set in place the procedure for admitting new states to the union; and much more. But the First Congress also confronted some issues that remain to this day: the conflict between states’ rights and the powers of national government; the proper balance between legislative and executive power; the respective roles of the federal and state judiciaries; and funding the central government. Other issues, such as slavery, would fester for decades before being resolved.
The First Congress tells the dramatic story of the two remarkable years when Washington, Madison, and their dedicated colleagues struggled to successfully create our government, an achievement that has lasted to the present day.
Happy Reading!
Dr. Bill ;-)
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