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The Quartet: Orchestrating the Second American Revolution 1783-1789
http://www.amazon.com/Quartet-Orchestrating-American-Revolution-1783-1789/dp/0385353405/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1433080519&sr=8-1&keywords=the+quartet ^

Posted on 05/31/2015 6:55:34 AM PDT by cotton1706

Very good book. Joseph Ellis never disappoints.


TOPICS: Books/Literature; Government
KEYWORDS: conventionofstates; freeperbookclub

1 posted on 05/31/2015 6:55:34 AM PDT by cotton1706
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To: Publius; Jacquerie

A very good book paralleling the current situation. It took time to get the people (and the legislatures) ready for a convention then. And it will now! It may take several election cycles, to remove those standing in the way, in Arizona, in Texas, in North Carolina, in North Dakota, in Virginia, etc.

And also, a single issue convention, on a Balanced Budget amendment (which currently has 28 states supporting it) may be a help, for as James Monroe puts it in a quote in the book, regarding the Annapolis convention, where delegates gathered on a single subject (commerce), “If it succeeds, it can be repeated as other defects force themselves on the public attention, and as the public mind becomes prepared for further remedies.”


2 posted on 05/31/2015 7:01:09 AM PDT by cotton1706 (ThisRepublic.net)
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To: cotton1706

Knowing so little of the political backroom games I wonder if this was a good thing. Was the civil war orchestrated for this end as well? I believe the states should have kept their sovereignty if the founders knew that once the poor vote themselves money, it’s all over. They probably knew more about history than our current politicians?


3 posted on 05/31/2015 7:48:06 AM PDT by huldah1776
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To: 5thGenTexan; 1010RD; AllAmericanGirl44; Amagi; aragorn; Art in Idaho; Arthur McGowan; ...

Article V ping!


4 posted on 05/31/2015 10:16:28 AM PDT by Jacquerie (Article V. If not now, when?)
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To: cotton1706
I read some of the reviews at Amazon.

The 1783-1789 period was tumultuous. Prosperity didn't follow the peace. Little is known of this confusing period at FR. It is definitely worth studying today. What passed for government under the Articles of Confederation began to dissolve before the battle of Yorktown. Morris, Morris and Washington were the de facto executive branch of government that didn't have one.

While The Quartet looks like a worthwhile purchase, I'd like to read a comparison of it and Gordon S. Wood's The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787 before I buy.

5 posted on 05/31/2015 10:39:04 AM PDT by Jacquerie (Article V. Vox Populi Vox Dei)
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To: Billthedrill

Ping. I’ve ordered this book.


6 posted on 05/31/2015 10:53:12 AM PDT by Publius ("Who is John Galt?" by Billthedrill and Publius now available at Amazon.)
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To: Jacquerie

Thanks!


7 posted on 05/31/2015 11:59:51 AM PDT by Repeal The 17th ("We The People" have met the enemy; and it is "We The People".)
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To: Jacquerie

Thanks for the heads up. Both now on my to do reading list.


8 posted on 05/31/2015 2:10:41 PM PDT by Art in Idaho (Conservatism is the only Hope for Western Civilization.)
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To: cotton1706
For later reference for all of us, Amazon links:

The Quartet: Orchestrating the Second American Revolution, 1783-1789

The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787

9 posted on 05/31/2015 2:19:19 PM PDT by Art in Idaho (Conservatism is the only Hope for Western Civilization.)
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To: Jacquerie

I’m reading The Quartet now and I’ve read Wood’s book as well. Both well worth reading.


10 posted on 05/31/2015 2:56:48 PM PDT by cotton1706 (ThisRepublic.net)
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To: Art in Idaho
I would only add that the first edition of Wood's Creation was in 1969.

I further admit my respect for books tends to increase with their age.

11 posted on 05/31/2015 3:21:07 PM PDT by Jacquerie (Article V. Vox Populi Vox Dei)
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To: cotton1706
This was interesting.

From the first review on Amazon:


In another claim that will provoke controversy, Ellis' reading of the second American revolution is avowedly elitist. He argues that most people had no interest in nationhood because a broad national vision would be inconsistent in some ways with their limited goals such as avoiding taxation and living beyond their means. Ellis recognizes the controversial nature of his perspective. He writes in the book's Preface:

"All democratic cultures find such explanations offensive because they violate the hallowed conviction that, at least in the long run, popular majorities can best decide the direction that history should take. However true that conviction might be over the full span of American history, and the claim is contestable, it does not work for the 1780s, which just might be the most conspicuous and consequential example of the way in which small groups of prominent leaders, in disregard of popular opinion, carried the American story in a new direction."



12 posted on 05/31/2015 3:37:32 PM PDT by Bratch
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To: cotton1706

Thank you for posting this. The book arrived from Amazon today, and fortunately it’s the large print edition. My eyes are getting too old and tired for small print.


13 posted on 06/04/2015 12:58:58 PM PDT by Publius ("Who is John Galt?" by Billthedrill and Publius now available at Amazon.)
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To: cotton1706

If it were to pass there’d be rioting, a massive deflation/depression, and then a beautiful rebirth. Expect there to be blood in the streets before the elites let a CC on a balance budget amendment.


14 posted on 06/06/2015 1:56:48 PM PDT by 1010RD (First, Do No Harm)
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To: cotton1706

I just now stumbled across the FR Book Club section. thanks
for the review. I never know whether a mainstream publisher
book is worth even a look.


15 posted on 09/26/2015 11:05:35 PM PDT by cycjec
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To: cotton1706; All

Where is our Hamilton? His bitter enemy, Jefferson, called him “a host within himself.” The progenitor of the Democrat Party was formed to thwart his successful economic and financial policies.

Those critical to our nation’s successful start were bitterly opposed by Jefferson clique.

He wrote 2/3s of the Federalist within a matter of months often a week apart and was the reason the NYC Ratification went from 2/3s against to 2/3s for. One of history’s most impressive legislative debates.

He, as much as Madison, can be called “the Father of the Constitution.”


16 posted on 11/19/2018 11:48:30 AM PST by arrogantsob (See "Chaos and Mayhem" at Amazon.com)
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To: cotton1706; All

Where is our Hamilton? His bitter enemy, Jefferson, called him “a host within himself.” The progenitor of the Democrat Party was formed to thwart his successful economic and financial policies.

Those critical to our nation’s successful start were bitterly opposed by Jefferson clique.

He wrote 2/3s of the Federalist within a matter of months often a week apart and was the reason the NYC Ratification went from 2/3s against to 2/3s for. One of history’s most impressive legislative debates.

He, as much as Madison, can be called “the Father of the Constitution.”


17 posted on 11/19/2018 11:48:30 AM PST by arrogantsob (See "Chaos and Mayhem" at Amazon.com)
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To: huldah1776

There is no Natural Right to own slaves. Had the states retained their claimed sovereignty that moral issue would fester from a dozen sores rather than from a region.

The difference between the Slave system and the Abolitionists was fundamentally a difference between moral views of the world.


18 posted on 11/19/2018 11:55:16 AM PST by arrogantsob (See "Chaos and Mayhem" at Amazon.com)
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